


Hot and Cold

by orphan_account



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Abandonment Issues, Age Difference, Alternate Universe, Angst, Anxiety, But it's extremely distant in this, Dante is a little shit, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, Fake Dating Dante/Patty, Family, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Kind of role reversal, M/M, Nero goes on a date with Kyrie, Nero tries to be responsible, Past Child Abuse, Some canon events from anime and games, Technically Incest?, Younger!Dante, demon hunting, it doesn't go anywhere, kid!Dante
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-06-28
Packaged: 2019-12-30 03:10:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 10
Words: 38,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18306998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Nero had taken the kid in not because of their distant relation but because Dante was like him, an oddity in their now almost entirely human family. He hadn't expected the change in his life to be permanent or to end up being so meaningful for him, he also didn't expect all of the crazy stuff in his life to start revolving around this kid.-----Or in which Nero takes a young Dante in, thinking temporarily, to help him figure out these weird demonic powers they share in common and then grows too attached. But Dante isn't a simple kid, he's moody and can have violent out lashes but then be the opposite and the two of them can laugh at dumb movies on the couch together for an evening. Growing up with demon powers you don't understand are a bitch.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: The first chunk of this chapter is sort of plot/world exposition and history.

**Year - 2104**

It had been just over four hundred years since the legendary Dark Knight Sparda and his human wife Eva died leaving behind their two twin sons with no particular place in the world. They'd each taken their own paths in a world demons were constantly attacking.

By the time they had died the world knew well about the Sparda family and demons, even if demon activity was at an all-time low. They each had also left behind children, a bloodline all born with the trademark white hair and demonic powers. Some of the earlier family lines had followed in their footsteps protecting the human world with their powers from the demons but as generations continued the powers began to wither off as the demonic blood was tainted with human essence.

They began to live more normal lives and forgot the ways of being demon hunters, lost, hid, or sold their collection of demon weapons that had been collected over the years. Now the family wasn't much of that, there weren't many of them but they lived spread across the world unknowing of one another.

Sparda was something that was still taught in school history classes along with basic demon safety tips if you were to encounter them. Some places saw the Sparda line as mystical, some thought they were no better than demons themselves, some didn't give a single hoot one way or another.

Nero had grown up in an orphanage in a small town, from a young age all the kids in the town knew what his striking white hair meant. That made it difficult to make meaningful friendships, he'd done poorly in school, gotten into fights constantly, and at points completely secluded himself.

Things had gotten worse when he turned twelve, a demonic power started to grow along his right arm and spread slowly for an entire year, it was painful and the other kids started to avoid him like the plague, that last part wasn't so bad he had to admit but it was angering to listen to the rumors and whispers from the sidelines.

The adult caretakers at the orphanage tried to convince him that the Devil Bringer arm was a blessing, a demonic power not documented in his family tree for almost two hundred years. Nero hated it, there were low times in his life growing up when he'd seriously considered trying to cut it off, he'd rather be without it than deal with what the Devil Bringer brought him.

From the ages of eighteen to twenty, Nero had lived as cheap as possible in his little town and worked himself crazy with any type of job he could. For those two years Nero hadn't had a single day off, either he worked long hour days running between jobs he'd booked up in town or the local area, or spending the entire day on a demon hunt. If his Devil Bringer was good for anything, it was good for killing demons, and he'd gotten pretty good at using it along with a special sword and gun that had been left to him by his parents to be inherited when he'd turned eighteen. Blue Rose and Red Queen became his family for those two years, he took them almost everywhere and they were extensions of himself.

As soon as he had the money Nero booked it out of that town and never looked back, buying and paying off his own place in a city several hours away. It wasn't huge and he'd had to clean a lot, it would also need repairs in the future, but everything worked. It had a small kitchen downstairs connected to the open floorplan that doubled as Nero's workspace with a desk and his living room with just a tv and a loveseat couch. Upstairs was a small bathroom and two bedrooms, one was Nero's and the other was going to be used for storage. It was...it was perfect.

After moving in Nero had taken an entire week to sleep in and rest from his two years of hard work, he'd done nothing but sleep, watch tv, and eat pizza from the local delivery place that was going to get to know him really well.

Now, it had been a year since Nero had moved in. Things finally felt in place, he lived comfortably by himself, managed his odd jobs along with his demon hunting jobs from his business he'd dubbed the Devil May Cry, and he even had a social life. Not a big one, but anything was more than what he'd had before.

During his jobs Nero had met Trish, a demon woman who had no ill intent towards humans, and Lady a human who did her own demon hunting. They didn't work together often but occasionally they would all get together to drink and eat, trade stories and information about demons. Then there was Nico, a local mechanic whose family apparently specialized in creating and taking care of demonic type weaponry, so whenever Blue Rose and Red Queen needed a tune that's where he took them.

Lastly, there was Kyrie, he'd met the woman on a job. She was...well, his friend, she had nothing to do with demons but she was kind and wasn't put off by his white hair or Devil Bringer. Their paths crossed occasionally but usually they would just talk on the phone once in a while since Kyrie lived in the next city over.

 

 

When Nero had left the orphanage he had never planned on entering one again, but today here he sat in a small waiting room in some crummy broken down orphanage in a small town that reminded Nero way too much of his childhood waiting for someone to come talk to him.

Nero had woken up that morning promptly at six like he normally did to get in an early workout and check his phone for any work messages he'd missed during the night. Sure he took on all sorts of jobs but one rule he'd set for himself was the luxury he could afford for himself, was a good nights rest. Something he hadn't had a lot of in the past and Nero hated being woken up or denied his sleep.

The one message on his phone had been enough to jolt him awake from his morning stupor, a message from an orphanage requesting his presence because of a dead relative. Nero had never met any of his relatives, not even his parents, and he wasn't sure who would have him down in their Will but that wasn't what he was worried about. It was the fact that an orphanage was handling part of the case, that meant there was a child involved.

An older woman finally stepped out of the back office, her graying hair tied up tightly into a bun and glasses brandished on her nose. A seemingly permanent scowl on her lips she held a clipboard close to her chest ready to use. "You're...Nero Sparda then?"

Standing up Nero straightened his blue coat, hiding his Devil Bringer in one of the pockets and running his human hand through his messy white hair. "I am, can you explain to me why the hell I'm here? The message on my phone was vague other than 'come now'."

Pushing the glasses up her nose the woman nodded, "A, however distant, relative of yours has passed away and left quite a lengthy list of relatives for me to go down the line and contact looking for someone to inherit the Will." by the end of saying that she looked more tired than irritated, "You are the fourth relative I've had to speak to in person, and nearly the fifteenth I've made a phone call to."

"So that means there's something about this Will that's making people reluctant to accept it?" he guessed, "Let's cut straight to it then."

"Yes, let's." she agreed, at least they were both on the same page there. "The Will states that upon Ms. Sparda's passing no one is to reenter the house, it is to be locked and sealed until the heirs eighteenth birthday. So none of that goes to you." she gave a pause, she'd likely lost a good number of people after saying that. "There is however a decent sum of money you will be rewarded, on the condition you take in the young hair until his eighteenth birthday."

"I see." Nero muttered, the older woman seemed almost astonished that he hadn't just walked out by now. "How old is the kid?" If this child was older maybe Nero could just deal with housing them for a year and let them get on with their life since it seemed it wasn't likely another family member was going to be easy to find to do the job.

"He just turned twelve." she answered, "If...you're actually considering this I could let you meet him briefly. That might help you decide if this is something you want to take on. Trust me I'd be thrilled if you did but taking care of a child, especially with how young you are, it's a big responsibility."

That might not be the worst idea, so Nero nodded, "Yeah I guess let's do that."  
  
Kids were something Nero had never thought about, he'd never wish his family heritage on a kid, or a child to deal with a father who did the type of work Nero did. Six years, could he deal with a kid he didn't know for six whole years and then let the brat get on with his life?

"Come with me then, most of the children are playing in the common room but if I know little Dante he'll be outside, by himself." Nero wasn't surprised by the name, apparently there was an old tradition in their heritage some of them still liked to name their children after earlier generations. Dante had been the name of one of the original Sparda twins, there had been many times when Nero wondered if he'd been named after someone.

Sure enough when the older woman took him outside to the playground a single child was outside, no wonder with the dreary looking sky that hadn't cleared up since last night. Grey clouds muttering up the sky and no sun in sight, it could rain any moment but there sat the white-haired boy in his ill-fitting clothes laying in the grassy field and looking up at the weather.

"Dante!" the lady called gently, the boy perked up and sat up to look over at them both, a blank look on his face. "I have someone here to meet you, a relative." She turned back to Nero, "I'll give you two a few minutes to get acquainted, I'll get some of the paperwork together in case...in case you decide to take him in."

Even from this distance Nero could feel it, demon blood coursing through the child's veins as he'd never felt before. He made sure to stuff his Devil Bringer further into his pocket to hide it's likely glowing habit. Something wasn't quite right, their current generations were supposed to have little to no demon blood inside of them, yet here he was with the Devil Bringer and Dante was so powerful at a young age that Nero could feel the power without even trying.

A pair of young blue eyes bore through Nero as he stepped closer, kneeling down to eye level when he got close enough. "Um...hey? My name is Nero I'm your...I have no idea actually. Probably some super distant Uncle or whatever." Ok Nero wasn't great with talking to people and it had been ages since he'd spoken to a kid, he wasn't doing so great for starters.

"Are you who they're dumping me with?" the kid frowned and laid back on the ground looking back at the sky. What a fucking brat!

Nero scowled but bit his tongue, "I haven't accepted you yet, but if I do I'd probably try to find you somewhere better while you stay at my place in the meantime. I'm not suited to watch a kid but anywhere is better than here, right?"

"Tch, whatever." Dante shrugged, "One shit hole is like any other."

"Ah-hey! You haven't even seen my house, you can't call it a shit hole!" Nero stood up and clenched his hands, what a little fucking brat this kid was! Suddenly Nero was overwhelmed with a combining feeling of both pity, because he'd been in Dante's shoes before living in an orphanage, and want to prove the kid wrong. He _could_ be a decent guardian, he _did_ have a nice house that he had worked incredibly hard for!

"Better pack your shit up then kid, looks like I'll be signing those papers!" he declared childishly himself before marching off inside in search of the grey-haired woman. "Alright let's do this!" he demanded and swiped a pen off of the desk she was sitting at. She went wide-eyed and blinked, "You're accepting then? Wonderful!" finally she managed a relieved smile and shuffled her stack of papers together. "I'll try to make the paperwork easy on you then."

Even if this was the easy version it took Nero nearly an hour to get through everything, sign and initial his life away on the Will, taking in Dante, accepting the money that came with this deal, which turned out to be a decent ten grand! Then the two of them took a stroll down the living quarters, this place was eerily too familiar that left shivers down Nero's spine and he couldn't help but to make a face when the woman opened up one of the doors.

The rooms were a mess, and no wonder when there were six kids living in and sharing a room. At the moment Dante was the only one inside, sitting on the edge of a bed with a small bag over his shoulder and waiting. "Am I really going then?"

The older woman nodded with a smile and went over to ruffle the boy's white hair, "Yes you're finally getting out of here, try to be good for Mr. Nero okay?" Dante just scoffed but stood up and walked straight over to his new guardian, "Let's go then."

"Is that all you have?" Nero couldn't help but mutter to himself, the bag looked half empty as small as it was. Well no matter, he'd be getting that deal of money soon enough, he could use a good portion to make Dante comfortable at the Devil May Cry once it arrived.

Dante stopped outside of Nero's van and tilted his head, "Devil...May Cry, what the hell does that mean?"

"It's the name of my business, the main store is where I live but this van works as a mobile advertisement." the older answered, and he didn't want to assume but by Dante's lack of dismissal it seemed that the boy was almost impressed that Nero had his own business.

Their drive was awkwardly silent, Dante seemed content to just stare out the window at the scenery but Nero felt the tension in the air. There were a lot of questions he wanted to ask about Dante, and a lot that needed to be asked eventually, but every time he opened his mouth his throat felt dry and he clammed up completely.

Upon entering Capulet City where the house was Nero cleared his throat and managed to say something, "So what do you know exactly...about our family? Did your parents ever explain anything to you?"

Sighing Dante nodded, "Yeah my mom crammed that junk in my head, I know all about how our family started and how it progressed. Which means I also know you're barely even family, you're probably like way on the other side of the family tree." That was true enough.

Parking the van outside they headed into the mostly empty office section of Nero's home, "Well this is it, home sweet home. Have a look around and tell me what you think."

The kid didn't look around much, just glancing here and there without even moving from the spot he stood in the middle of the room, "Boring and shitty as I thought."

Great so this was how things were going to be between them, fine Nero could deal with that. He would just treat this as a job, get some answers from Dante and see if this kid really had as much demonic power as Nero thought and then find an appropriate home for him. Maybe over in Fortuna near Kyrie, they knew all about demons there and could probably help Dante grow with his powers and get spoiled to shit by all of the people fascinated by his heritage.

Nero hadn't grown up in Fortuna but he had visited there plenty of times for jobs or to see Kyrie, the attention he got was too much for him but for a kid they'd probably love it. And if Dante's powers were just a fluke then Nero could find him a nice place to stay nonetheless, somewhere normal where their family tree wasn't seen as monstrous or terrible.

 

 

The devil hunter woke up the next morning at the crack of dawn in a panic to the smell of strong smoke, he rushed downstairs in his boxers and nightshirt and checked the kitchen, untouched, and then the couch where Dante had been sleeping even though he'd been offered the bed, empty.

The front door was open and smoke was filtering in from the front porch, slamming the double doors open Nero glared at the kid sitting on the steps and watching a pile of clothes burning just off the porch. "What the hell are you doing!?"

Looking up casually Dante shrugged and poked the burning pile with a long stick, "Burning my orphanage clothes."

"You could have just thrown them out, I thought the house was on fire!" Nero scolded, grabbing his boots and proceeding to stomp the small fire out much to Dante's dismay. "Hey knock it off!" the boy whined and moved to try and push Nero away from his pile but wasn't strong enough.

Nero grit his teeth and grabbed the kid by the back of his shirt and easily lifted him off the ground to finish putting the fire out. "We're eating some breakfast and then _you_ are cleaning this charred mess up." he set Dante back onto his feet inside the house. "Rule 1, don't set shit on fire."

The kid crossed his arms and glared at nothing, but as Nero passed him to get to the kitchen his eyes went wide, "Holy shit what happened to your arm!?" Oh. Right.

Since their first meeting Nero had been careful to conceal his Devil Bringer in his coat, even while driving them back to the Devil May Cry he had been driving with one hand. He groaned loudly, just what he wanted to discuss right after being woken up this morning. "It's my arm, no idea why it's like this but it is, I can do cool stuff with it. That's it."

Nero started searching through his cabinets and fridge for anything edible but so far everything was lacking, and his irritations were rising every moment that Dante followed right behind his steps staring at his arm and reaching to poke it. "Woh it feels really weird." It was warm like human skin but it was tough almost like scales, but much softer texture than that.

"Stop!" Nero yelled and even with holding back everything he could he shoved Dante back a few steps pushing the kid's shoulder, Dante responded with glaring at him even as the Devil Bringer started to glow lightly. Nero immediately regretted it, he shouldn't be shoving kids around even if they're brats, he sighed loudly, "I don't have anything in here to eat, why don't we go up the road there's this awesome pizza place I know."

"I'll be the judge of that."

If life with this kid was anything close to what this morning had been, Nero was in for a stressful time. But for now, he'd promised Dante pizza for breakfast. One thing at a time.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nero and Dante are off to a rocky start together but things are looking up, maybe they don't dislike each other as they initially thought. Lady makes her introduction.

Two weeks had passed since Dante had come to stay with him and every moment they were together the two were at each other's throats over this, that, the smallest of things they'd argue about. Dante was always the one to start it and Nero tried to brush it off but usually lost to his temper.

He did feel accomplished however, without a single shred of help from Dante he had cleaned out the spare bedroom he used for storage. Moving things to other parts of the house and cleaning up the room then furnishing it with a bed, lights, a nightstand, dresser, so the kid wouldn't have to keep sleeping on the couch. Buying all of that was expensive and cost Nero nearly half of what he'd inherited from his relatives Will already.

Shopping had been a disaster, Dante chose all red clothes and a matching red bed set even but refused to pick anything fun out. He'd turned down the offer of toys, books, posters, games, and when it came to food he'd just shrugged and muttered that he could live off of pizza every day.

Nero had loaded up on some frozen pizzas but filled their fridge and cabinets with a lot of other things, he was planning to actually start making meals occasionally to feed the kid properly. Then with the leftover money Nero had put it towards prepaying two months of rent.

Today Nero was finally going back to work, he'd put off jobs until now to get Dante settled in but now he had to get back to it, there were bills to pay and his home did need eventual renovations.

He'd woken up, checked his jobs for the day and gone downstairs to work out with some of his equipment before taking a nice shower. Promptly at half past seven Dante wandered down in his red pajamas with sleepy eyes, it was a wonder that he never slept in late seeing as he was up at all hours of the night pacing around the house. Nero knew, he had sharp hearing and it had woken him up on edge more than a few times, it pissed him off to no end but he'd never scolded Dante for it.

"Morning kid." the older greeted as he attempted making breakfast, working on some fried eggs to go with a bowl of cereal and orange juice. Killing demons Nero had no trouble with but breakfast hadn't been as easy to adapt to, every meal he'd attempted the devil hunter had burned to some degree, he heard no end to the complaints from Dante.

"Mn." the kid grunted back and took a seat at the small table and scooped a few slow mouthfuls of cereal into his mouth.

"Today I'm going back to work." he announced.

"Killing demons?" Dante guessed sleepily.

"Yup and a few other things, my work is all over the place and I've let it pile up so I'm going to be gone most of today." Nero paused when Dante let his spoon noisily drop into his bowl and looked up from his table, giving his guardian his full attention for once.

"So...yeah, I'll be back by nine tonight. If you go outside don't get lost and don't get into trouble, I'll give you some money if you want to order pizza but make sure you tip the pizza guy. Don't be cheap they gotta make money somehow. Oh and take a look at the pages I marked on the laptop, you've gotta pick a school soon." Their eyes met for the whole one-sided conversation, it felt weird, for once Nero actually felt like Dante was taking in everything he was saying.

"Promise not to destroy the house?" Nero smiled at the kid, Dante was uncharacteristically quiet and glanced away from his guardian to mutter, "The eggs are burning."

"Shit!" the devil hunter spun around to care for his burnt eggs, "Goddammit.."

Though the last two weeks hadn't been anywhere near the worst or hardest of his life Nero was relieved to be going back to work, he'd always had a lot of energy so not using it all up to work had silently driven him a bit crazy.

HIs day felt like an entire accomplishment, he'd finished three small demon hunting jobs, fixed some leaky plumbing, and picked up someone's kid from school and escorted them home.

He'd even gotten home an hour earlier than expected, walking up the steps he muttered out loud, "Wonder if the kid saved me any pizza." there was no doubt in his mind that Dante had ordered pizza with the money left, he hadn't been kidding when saying he'd eat pizza every day if able.

Flicking on the light Nero clenched his fists tight as he looked around the main floor, there were napkins and empty soda cans strewn about the whole room and broken glass in several places, one of the pillows from the couch had been torn open and the stuffing was scattered all about.

"Dante!! Get your ass down here!" Nero yelled furiously and slammed the front door shut.

Peeking out from his room Dante quietly walked out and hung his arms over the little upstairs balcony that overlooked the downstairs, "You're back." he said in that usual casual tone that utterly angered Nero to no end, as if he hadn't left the house a fucking mess on purpose!

"What the hell is all of this!?"

Fidgeting his hands together Dante looked away refusing to meet Nero's eyes, "I was bored, I picked a school like you asked."

Sure he'd done the one thing Nero asked but absolutely nothing else. Taking in a deep breath the devil hunter bit at his inner cheek and ran a hand over his eyes, "I'm too tired for this, clean this mess up _now_ , and no pizza for a week. Even the frozen ones in the freezer!"

He honestly had no idea how else to punish Dante, the kid didn't have anything fun to take away other than the tv that he barely used anyways, the only thing he constantly loved that wouldn't hurt to take away was the pizza. Surprisingly the young man didn't argue and just came down the stairs to grab a broom from the closet.

That wasn't the only time Nero came home to a messed up house, another two weeks passed by slowly. Nothing changed, they argued and had little good to say to each other, Dante just wouldn't give Nero the chance to say anything good. Every time he tried the kid just picked a fight on purpose, and knowing it was on purpose irritated Nero even more, there was no relationship to be had here and he was starting to reach his limit.

How long could he try to figure this kid out and find the best place to put him if he couldn't even ask simple questions and get a straight answer. And how was he able to want the kid to stick around if every time he was out late doing jobs he came home to a house that had shit was strewn around and things broken everywhere.

Nero had no idea why Dante was even doing it, he had no way of knowing when they couldn't have a civil conversation between them. All he could assume, was that Dante just really hated him.

A little after the one month mark of Dante coming to stay with him Nero came home from work much earlier than expected, not too long after lunchtime. His first job had canceled and then the demon hunting job that was expected to keep him busy for the evening turned out to be a bust. Just some teenagers messing with some adults, not actual demons.

Before going inside Nero prepared himself for what could be broken this time, his tv, the new couch pillows, hell the couch itself could be torn up, or another one of his chairs might be missing a leg this time.

It wasn't as bad as he'd thought, there was pillow stuffing all over the floor but nothing else was ruined. "I'm back, Dante you around?" Nero heard the loud breathing right away, like someone struggling to get breathes in, and stepped in quickly following the breadcrumb-like trail of stuffing that lead to the underside of his work desk.

Dante had pulled himself his knees to his chest under there and clung to a pillow as he breathed hard, his knuckles going white as his fingers ripped into the fabric and slowly ripping it open further than it already was. "Nero...?" his voice soft and cracking though there were no tears.

Nero visibly softened, his shoulders relaxing, his eyes becoming more gentle along with his voice. "Hey kid, what's going on?"

Dante opened his mouth to say something, "I-I can...I can't..." but he was still having trouble getting his breathing to calm down. HIs small stature shaking from sucking in any oxygen it could and then pushing it out just as fast. "Okay, okay you don't have to talk. Let's get you out of here first, I'm gonna grab you alright?"

He couldn't help but anticipate some fight but Dante was pliant, letting Nero pull him out from under the desk and lift him up to carry when he stood. He released the pillow from his death grip only to find new purchase, throwing his arms over Nero's shoulders and clinging to the back of the man's blue coat instead.

Nero was strong so carrying a twelve-year-old was no issue but still awkward doing it for the first time, for now he took a seat on the couch and touched the kids back, rubbing his thumb up and down testing out the soothing motion. It took a full ten minutes before Dante started to calm down and finally pulled back from Nero's chest but still sitting in his guardian's lap with no movement to leave, his eyes looked exhausted and his cheeks pink from embarrassment.

"I....didn't mean to rip it." blue eyes glanced over to the forgotten pillow. Nero hadn't been worried about that, not when he'd come home to Dante having a full-blown panic attack underneath his desk. "So, you didn't mean to break all that other stuff either then?"

Dante shook his head, "I just...I just keep getting this feeling in my chest. It feels like I'm going to explode but I do anyways and I end up ripping and breaking shit!" his chest heaved like he was about to start hyperventilating again before Nero tugged him close again to hug gently. "Relax, I'm not mad."

"You're....not?"

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not happy....but I think I understand a bit better now." Or he thought he did, this stuff only happened when Dante was left alone for long periods of time. It could be a number of things but Nero was betting that the poor kid had some abandonment issues, or something along those lines where he started to get panicky when left alone too long without things to keep his mind busy.

"We'll figure this out so I can get mad at you for things that are actually your fault. Sound good?"

Clenching his eyes shut Dante's cheeks were flushed completely pink as he gripped into the front of Nero's jacket and nodded, "Mm-hm." He sunk happily into the small sign of affection, Nero smiled and settled further back into the couch. _Cute_ he thought for the first time.

 

 

They still argued, a lot, that much hadn't changed, but a lot else had.

As a first step Nero had gotten Dante enrolled in a form of online and at homeschooling with so much work a day to keep the kid busy, then he'd bought some games for the kid. Puzzles, puzzle type games, books, comics, things to keep someone's mind busy, and finally a phone.

His van had a built-in phone to take business calls on the go but it was old so it was about time Nero invested in a mobile phone anyways, he'd gotten one for each of them. That way if Dante needed something he could call or text, so far after the first few weeks there hadn't been any emergencies. Once or twice a day Nero would get a simple text from the kid saying he'd done something around the house or asking when Nero was planning to be back, that was all it took and things being broken in the house came to a complete stop.

Dante had even started doing chores, all on his own, taking out the trash, washing dishes or scrubbing the floor after his school work was done. It was nice and now Nero could finally look forward to coming home again, and look forward to eating pizza now that Dante wasn't officially banned from it as a punishment.

For once it was a relaxing evening, Nero had the day off so he'd been getting some things fixed up around the house but towards the evening he and Dante shared a pizza and were just watching junk on tv, the kid was splayed out and his legs pushing into Nero's space at the edge of the couch, pushing into his side like a pest and once in a while giving a little shove trying to irritate the man.

With a huff Nero finally had enough, grabbing Dante's ankles forcing the feet out of his hip, "Hey!" and then dropped them instead onto his lap. "Tch, whatever." Dante muttered and turned his eyes back to the tv.

"Say kid...you know what would help with your boredom is probably making some friends, an actual physical school would be good for that. Or going out to play at the park." Nero decided to say, with his human hand he wasn't sure why but started to fiddle with Dante's bare toes that were in his lap.

"I guess but I don't see the point if I'm not staying here permanently, you said this was just for a while after all." Oh right he did, he'd been more focused on worrying about Dante's anxieties the last few weeks that he'd all but forgotten about the demonic stuff. He only remembered on occasion when the powers seemed to flare and cause his Devil Bringer to glow blue once in a while.

"Well I won't force you but _a while_ could be anywhere from six months to even a year. Maybe if you told me more about yourself I could find you someplace you'd like quicker." he tried to bribe but only got a grunt of annoyance from the brat.

As he kept mindlessly playing with the boy's toes his fingers brushed the soles of Dante's feet, right away the kid gasped and stiffened making Nero smirk, "Well well, is someone ticklish?"

"No way in hell I am!"

"Oh really?" his smirk only grew wider and Nero held one of Dante's ankles and on purpose this time brushed his fingers over the sensitive bottoms of the kid's feet, making the boy gasp and whine and struggle against the hold, "H-Hey knock it off!"

He didn't stop and chuckled lightly, "Are you ticklish all over then?" leaning over Nero's human fingers found their way to tickling Dante's sides and anywhere fair game that seemed sensible to be ticklish. Sure enough bouts of laughter exploded from the young man as he tried to push Nero away, "Stop, stop! Nero stop!" he whined as pricks of tears gathered just at the corners of his eyes from laughing so much.

_Cute_ Nero thought just before a foot made contact with his jaw and the fun stopped, Nero rubbing at where he'd been kicked but still smiling, "I guess I deserved that."

Dante was completely out of breath with a red face and sitting up on the couch now, "Asshole!" he cried out but held no real bite behind his bark.

A few days later Nero had woken up early to do his morning routine, work out, shower, try to make breakfast and fail at it. When Dante staggered downstairs he looked more exhausted than usual, Nero wasn't surprised, he'd heard the kid pacing even longer than usual last night. That was still one problem he hadn't figured out how to approach yet.

"Morning kid." he greeted like every morning, they ate breakfast together including the burnt pancakes. But as Nero pulled on his shoes there was a tug on his coat, he smiled, "What's up, need something before I go?"

"Can I come with you today?" Dante looked completely serious, there was no funny business laced in his eyes, "I know you said it'd be a short day but...I'm feeling weird, can I just come and sleep in the van? I promise not to get in the way."

It was a demon job so it would be dangerous but if Dante stayed in the van and out of sight things should be alright. "yeah you can come as long as you seriously promise not to leave the van, demons are dangerous."

Dante nodded and even on the way to the job he ended up falling asleep in the passenger seat, resting his head on his seat belt like a pillow.

Parking out front of the building across town Nero couldn't help but smile again and reached to ruffle his fingers through Dante's white shaggy hair that looked a lot like his own, "Get some sleep, I'll make this quick and maybe we can have pizza for dinner." he said softly so not to wake the sleeping young one. Shrugging off his blue jacket Nero draped it over his charge and locked the van up behind him and headed inside, Blue Rose and Red Queen dawned and ready to be used.

Like his client has said the top floor of this abandoned apartment building had a hoard of demons upstairs, they were all small fries probably gathering together planning to use their combined strength and attack at some point. Nero put a stop to that, slaughtering every one of them and shaking himself off with all the blood that had gotten splattered on him.

"A job well done." he smiled proudly to himself and took a leisurely stroll down the stairway of the building and cleaned his gun with a clean spot of his shirt. "What kind of pizza should we have tonight? Haven't had stuffed crust in a while...hm, better remember to specify no olives this time or Dante will have a fit again." it was the single topping the boy hated.

Something heavy sunk in Nero's stomach when his demonic arm began to glow brightly the closer he got to the bottom floor, maybe it was nothing but something just felt off. "Dante!" he called and broke into a run just before he heard a loud slam like something ramming itself into the van outside. "Dante!"

Nero kicked the bottom doors off their hinges and all his brain processed was that the door of the van was ripped off, and he saw a demon over Dante and blood. "Die!" he yelled, bringing back his Devil Bringer and thrusting it forward with a surge of power and crushing the demon in one fell swoop.

"Shit are you okay!?" Nero yelled with a dire tone as his arms were scooping Dante up into his arms, one under the boy's legs and the other behind his back as he ran around getting them into the driver's seat and speeding off already. "I'm fine." the kid managed after a moment of processing what had just happened.

"You're not fine don't lie to me, that claw went straight through your leg!" he yelled again as he drove straight towards the hospital. "No really, I'm fine, look!"

Skidding to a halt in the middle of the empty street Nero blinked and touched his demonic arm carefully around the wound, it was already beginning to close up and had stopped bleeding on its own. "It scared me but I'm fine now." the boy promised.

"Fuck..." the older sighed out and touched his hand to Dante's head and leaned his forehead to the side of the messy hair, "You scared the shit out of me."

After going back to the van door Nero had left in his rush they went home, Nero took a quick shower washing off the blood coating his body and then ran a bath for Dante, who he wasn't allowing to walk and had been carrying him despite that the wound was already starting to scab up.

Maybe now he knew a little how Dante felt when he was left alone too long, just the thought of leaving the kid by himself in the bath right now gave Nero this sickly feeling of anxiety. A feeling like if anything at all came between them Nero would cut it down in an instant.

"Are you...okay? That was a lot of blood." the boy asked while Nero's fingers were busy washing his hair. "Me? I'm fine kid, wasn't my blood. Just glad you didn't get hurt worse than you did because I was careless and missed one of those buggers."

"But anyways the job is done, we can have any kind of pizza you want today." That made Dante perk up and glance back at Nero, "I want an everything but olives pizza!"

Sitting at the pizza place down the road, Fredi's, the two of them devoured a large pizza together, Dante was licking some sauce off of his thumb when his eyes caught a glimpse of something shiny in Nero's coat jacket. "What's that?" but took another bite of his loaded up pizza.

"Hm? Oh, this is the payment I got stuck with for the job. The lady seemed desperate and said this was some family heirloom she wasn't attached to, she was sure it was worth a lot but I'm not so sure."

It was a silver necklace with a locket pendant at the end also silver with some cool engravings on it and a blue gem in the center. "If it's cheap maybe you should keep it, it's kinda cool."

"You like it?" Nero dangled it from his fingers, "You can have it then." he'd probably get a hundred or a bit more for it at a pawn shop, if Dante liked it then he didn't mind giving that up, the kid never asked for material things.

Reaching Dante touched the pendant but caught it when Nero let it fall into his hand and pulled it to his chest, "Uh, th....thanks.." he looked out the window but pulled the chain over his head and examined the piece of jewelry. Popping it open there was a place for a picture but not one inside, "Guess she wasn't lying when she said it had no emotional value for her, it's all dusty inside this thing." he blew out the dust and clipped it closed again.

"Well well I didn't know you had a little brother Nero!" both pairs of eyes looked up from their mostly gone pizza, a piece of crust hanging from Dante's mouth, "Who're you?" he mumbled around it.

"Oh it's you Lady. Dante this is my friend Lady, she hunts demons too."

The woman with the short and black hair smiled, Dante couldn't help but stare a little because of her eyes. They were different colors and she had a scar that crossed over her nose, "I see..."

Lady laughed and reached to ruffle the boy's hair, "You're just like Nero said, you don't like people at all do you? Hold on I'll be right back." going to the counter Lady ordered something and brought it back, sliding it in front of Dante. "How about this as a peace offering between us?"

It was a very large strawberry sundae that had Dante's mouth open and watering as he stared into it like he'd been given a million dollars, "Thank you, I accept!"

"Hah." Nero was left speechless for a moment, "Wish I'd thought of that, but you always were smarter than me Lady. You here looking for me or was this a happy coincidence?"

Nero slid over letting Lady take a seat next to him, "I've got a job to discuss with you, and as a bonus I wanted to get a look at this kid you told me about."

"Tell me what you've got then."

"Trish was off on a job a little way out but I haven't heard from her in a few days, it's probably nothing but it'd be cool of you if you'd go check out there for me. I've got a different job keeping me busy right now." she answered.

"Ah, and you don't want her to get mad at you for barging in on her job but it's okay if she gets mad at me, is that it?"

"Exactly! And you said you weren't smart Nero!" she grinned, "Will you do it? I'll cut off a good chunk of the money you owe me."

"Deal." the devil hunter said immediately, "Glad that's almost gone, I hate having debt over my head."

Licking his spoon clean Dante chimed in, "Whose Trish?"

"My partner.." Lady said with no shame, the kid tilted his head at that.

"Ooooh! Cool."

Dante never knew exactly how that job had gone but soon after Nero returned from it he'd met Trish, who had greeted him with a handshake and zapped his hand. He immediately liked her.

Which was good, he'd be seeing both of the women plenty in the future.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nero was under the impression that Dante 'wanted' to live somewhere else but he's starting to think perhaps he was wrong, maybe he hasn't been listening to Dante's outbursts as well as he should have been.  
> \----  
> There's fighting, an odd demon, and some long-awaited talking and cuddling.

A lamp went flying across the bottom floor of the Devil May Cry just missing Nero as he ducked away from it. "Don't throw shit at me, you need to calm the hell down Dante!"

"Then stop pissing me off! Lately it's been nag nag nag, you just keep pushing with the damn questions!" the boy yelled back.

It was going on month four of them living together and Nero had finally decided to get his act together and start doing what he'd intended from the beginning, figure out where the extent of Dante's demonic powers lied. Every chance he could Nero had been pushing to learn more about if Dante had ever used any powers, but it seemed a sensitive subject because every time he did the blow up got worse to the point where Dante was now getting physical over it.

"I don't care how angry you are, don't give me those eyes!" his arm was glowing blue and Dante's eyes had gone full devil, a fiery red retina as his anger flared.

"Why does it matter if I have powers, I don't get why it matters to you so much! You have that arm, we're the same!" the young man ran over to the kitchen and picked up the toaster to throw but Nero was there instantly putting it back down and picking Dante up under the arms and starting to walk him upstairs to the bathroom as the other struggled in the grip.

"It's not the same and you know it!" His arm was just...well, an arm, what Dante had was much more dangerous and powerful if the power didn't taper off as he grew. He was so young and already had so much of that power in his blood ready to be used.

"Fuck yo-ah!" Dante screamed when he was set in the tub and the cold spray turned on full.

"You need to cool off kid, I'm done asking questions for now....come downstairs whenever you're cool and collected."

He didn't see Dante for the rest of the day, or the next morning before he had to go off to work. He sent a text saying that he was leaving but nothing, there was a tightened feeling in Nero's chest that he didn't like one bit. On his drive off to work it hit him, he was getting attached, attached to the kid he'd promised to send off to a good home, which was going to make all of that a million times harder to say goodbye in the end.

Sure Dante was an emotional mess, an angry little spiteful child but he was also sassy and hilarious, super smart, and when he allowed himself to be he was incredibly sweet. Nero had seen glimpses of that side of him that were always quickly brushed aside, he had to wonder if that side was more of who Dante had been before his mother had died.

 

 

He hadn't meant to throw things or get so angry, he never meant to get so rude or angry with Nero but whenever things like his powers came up Dante panicked. It was constantly sitting in the back of his mind that Nero was one step away from getting rid of him, stuffing him off with someone else when that was the exact opposite of what he wanted.

Though he would acknowledge, he really needed to calm down so the day after their fight Dante took a walk, a really long walk out to the edge of the city where there was a small river. Rolling up his pants Dante let his feet hit the cold water and shivered, "I just want things to be different...."

A small time later something smooth bumped against his foot, it didn't feel like a rock or a fish and sure enough looking into the clear water there was a golden mask. "What the hell is this?" he muttered to himself and plucked it from the water.

_"I will grant your wish young one...what do you desire?"_

Dante panicked and dropped the mask, scrambling back onto the grassy side of the river and standing. "You-You're a demon!" he pointed as the mask lifted off the ground and grew a body of what Dante could only describe as green sludge.

_"I will grant your wish."_ it repeated, _"Tell me what you desire."_

Nero had warned him about dealing with demons but what if this thing really could grant him a wish, and if it didn't then he could lead the thing home for Nero to deal with. "I wish...for a hundred dollars." he said just to test it out.

One of the three closed gem eyes opened and it spouted, _"No way that wouldn't benefit you."_

Maybe he had to make a real wish then, "Okay then I wish...I wish I could stay with Nero forever." a light tinge of pink growing in his cheeks.

_"I'm not interested in that wish."_

Kicking a rock at the demon Dante glared, "You asked me to make a wish, if you aren't open to what I want then what good are you!?" Grabbing his shoes Dante started to stomp off back to the Devil May Cry and though he didn't see it, he could _feel_ the presence of something else lingering right behind him.

Stepping into the business it felt quiet as always, "Maybe I could do something to make it up to Nero for blowing up this morning..." He got to cleaning, doing the laundry at the laundromat down the road since he knew Nero hated doing that, now this was this first time doing laundry but really how hard could it be?

Apparently harder than he'd expected, one of his pairs of red socks had gotten mixed in with a load of whites turning a bunch of both of their clothes a pinkish red, and he might have put it on the wrong settings somewhere along the line because some of Nero's clothes shrunk. Holding up one of them to his chest Dante groaned, "He's going to be so pissed...Shit!" he gasped.

Rummaging through the pile Dante pulled out one of Nero's expensive blue coats, one of the few things the devil hunter spent a good deal of money on, it was ruined. Dante wasn't even sure what he'd done to fuck up these clothes but he made a mental note to learn how to actually do laundry before ever attempting it again, too bad his cell phone didn't have internet on it.

He wasn't sure what possessed him to but quickly after arriving home Dante put all of the clothes away as if he hadn't ruined them, hoping somehow that Nero might not notice his fucked up clothing but internally waiting for the other shoe to drop at some point.

They ignored each other when Nero came home later but he heard the man yell his name, shit, that wasn't a good sign. He'd probably found his coat first.

Standing on the overhanging balcony to the first floor Nero held up the coat, "You did this on purpose you little shit!" Clenching his hands and ready to defend himself Dante stood up and glared.

"I did not! I was trying to help but I didn't realize you have to put certain things into different loads of laundry!" for once Nero wasn't hearing any excuses, he marched downstairs and held the coat up to Dante's eyes.

"Do you know how much one of these costs regularly, and this one is customized. This sort of stuff needs to be taken to professionals to be washed up or specially taken care of, come on Dante you're not stupid you've got to know that!" he snapped.

The kid's face grew hot from embarrassment and anger, he hadn't known that actually. "Screw you! If you don't believe me then just leave me alone forever!"

_"That wish, I can grant."_ that deep voice from earlier echoed through the Devil May Cry and a green ooze built up from the floor with its mask and all before opening its mouth and spewing a similar liquid straight at Nero.

Thankfully the partial demon was quick and shielded himself with his already ruined coat, but it wasn't enough to save all of him and the acid melted through the fabric, some of the floor, and started to eat away at some of his skin. "Fuck! Dante get back!"

The demon wasn't particularly tough, it had just caught them both off guard, but Nero took no time to shove Red Queen through its mask and disperse of it, leaving the artifact piece cracked but still together amazingly.

"Nero, Nero hey I'm sorry I didn't know it was still following me!" he rushed to the hunter's side only for a flashing glare to send a shiver through the boys entire skeleton. "Go upstairs to your room, I don't want to see you for the rest of the day Dante."

Right now Nero was looking at him like he was practically a demon himself, slowly he backed away and rushed up the stairs to lock himself away in his room. Curling up under his covers Dante hugged his arms around him and dug his fingernails into his skin, trying to concentrate on his breathing so he wouldn't start hyperventilating. "What is wrong with me...what is wrong with me.." he kept muttering to himself late into the night.

At some point he managed to drift off, passed out more like it, the last thing he'd remembered was trying not to start crying and screaming out of frustration towards himself. Heading downstairs he crept down the steps quietly and looked around but the figure sitting at the desk with their feet up wasn't Nero.

"Lady, what're you doing here?"

"Hey kid, guess Nero had some big job out of town today and said his phone was going to be off, asked me to come look in after you since I wasn't busy."

Oh. So Nero had been so pissed off with him that to avoid literally murdering Dante he had gone out doing who knew what for the entire day with his phone off. Got it. He couldn't blame the man, Dante was almost as fed up with himself as the hunter.

They played a few board games together and he listened to Lady tell stories about some demon hunts she'd been on, which were pretty badass and he'd always remember never to piss Lady off, but after that Dante started cleaning. He did his best to clean up the areas on the floor that had been destroyed by acid with Lady's help going to buy some wooden planks and getting tools to put them in.

It looked halfway decent but this place needed new flooring anyway, at least it wasn't half eaten through. Towards the evening, when the sun was low, they were bored sitting on the couch watching some bad horror movies on tv but Dante wasn't paying much attention.

"What's up with you, your mind has been out of your head all day long? Is this about the fight you guys had?" she questioned, Dante doubted that Nero had told Lady much but she was really smart so he chalked it up to just that.

"Kind of..." pulling his knees to his chest Dante felt that pain in his chest like he was going to explode, but today it felt a bit different. Lifting a hand to rub over his eyes that began to feel hot and itchy he muttered, "I want to ask you something but you have to promise not to tell Nero, okay?"

Now he had Lady's full attention, she flicked the tv off and turned towards him. "Alright, tell me I'm all ears."

"Does Nero....does he hate me?"

Lady closed her mouth, she wasn't sure what to say at first. "Why would you think-"

"Because I know he does, and I don't blame him!" the boy snapped, "I really wanted him to hate me at first, I didn't want to like him but....but he's really cool and super nice and...and..." Hot tears started to well up in the young man's eyes that he tried to blink and fight back.

"I-I don't want him to hate me but I keep screwing things up!" He was too young to fully understand but Lady saw it right away, Dante was self-sabotaging himself from fear of getting close to someone and losing them. But now he was already attached to Nero but kept trying to push him away, it was hurting both of them a lot and putting a rift between them.

"I do-I don't want him to ha-hate me..." Soft sobs ebbed from the kid's throat and he lifted both hands to wipe away the fat tears that couldn't be held back any longer, raining down his cheeks. "He's gonna send me away and he-and he won't miss me one bit!"

When Lady had accepted this little job she hadn't been expecting this, grabbing a tissue she tried to wipe Dante's cheeks, "Here blow your nose kid." Maybe he'd feel better now that he had himself a good cry, "I don't think he hates you." but something told her that Dante wasn't going to believe those words from her mouth either way.

"Why don't you head upstairs to bed, you'll think better how to deal with this stuff in the morning." Dante didn't fight that, he didn't want to cry in front of Lady anymore but felt a surge of sobs bubble up again as he nodded.

Before he managed to even stand up the front doors to the Devil May Cry burst open and a tired Nero walked through dragging his sword along behind him and propping it up against the wall. "I'm back." he announced and kicked the doors back shut before walking over to the people occupying his couch.

"You guys have a fun day-Dante are you crying?" the hunter reached to touch his charges cheek but his hand was batted away as the boy rubbed his sleeve along his eyes to dry them in a rushed attempt. He wanted to say no, no he wasn't a baby and crying but the words wouldn't leave his mouth, he shoved past Nero and fled upstairs to his room.

"Lady what did you do to the poor kid, I told you to watch him not make him cry!"

"Oooh no you're not blaming this on me hotshot." the woman scoffed and stood, "This is all on you two, nothing to do with me."

"Was he really that mad because I told him to go to his room? I think I have a right to be mad, he ruined all of my laundry, even if it was by accident." Nero was much calmer now after spending his day out taking his frustrations out on demons and just having a day to not think at all, letting his body do all of the thinking for him.

A fist collided with his shoulder, "Ow what was that for?"

"Listen to me and stop joking around, this is serious Nero. That kid has been a mess all day because he thinks you absolutely hate him."

"What?" Nero's face fell, all his joking gone. "What are you talking about?"

Lady didn't care about her half promise she'd made, she was going to tell on everything Dante had just told her. "He asked me if you hated him and then started crying his eyes out because he likes living with you so much he doesn't want you to relocate him. Honestly that kid is a mess, you mentioned to me that he's been having a lot of outbursts lately towards you, do you think maybe..."

"Maybe he's scared." It all started to click in place for the hunter, "He's has panic attacks, a hard time sleeping, lots of mood swings, general anxiety...I thought it was all from trying to process his mother's death. It might be but I'm definitely not helping it by mentioning I'm going to move him out of here any chance I can and he really wants to stay."

"Bingo hotshot." Lady crossed her arms, "I'm sort of glad he broke down though, at least now you know what he's been hiding from you."

"I can't thank you enough Lady, I owe you...well I owe you more than I already do." saying their goodbyes Nero locked up the house and kicked his shoes off, changing out of his sweaty hunting clothes and slowly peeking into Dante's room. "Hey..." he called softly.

Muffled sobs were being pressed into a pillow as the kid tried to hide himself in his bed. The twin size bed was perfect for a kid but as Nero tried to crawl in he found it a bit difficult but managed as he started to pull the red sheets off of Dante's face.

His body was settled right up behind the smaller boys and with his human hand Nero hugged Dante back to his chest lightly, leaning forward to nuzzle the back of the other's white hair. "Hey you're okay, I'm here and I'm not going anywhere."

"M...m'sorry I keep making you upset." Dante forced out between sobs, "I just-"

"Shh it's okay right now, don't think about it. We'll talk about it in the morning, I just want you to know that I'm not mad and I think I understand."When some of the crying started to quiet down Nero took that as a sign he could leave, he was sorely mistaken and as the bed dipped with his movement Dante panicked.

He turned to grab Nero's shirt and cried out, "Don't go!" his eyes had stopped flowing with tears but they still screamed _don't leave me alone right now_. There was no way they'd both sleep comfortably in this bed so that only left the devil hunter with one other option.

Like he'd done before when Dante had an injury to his leg he scooped up his charge in one swoop that made the younger squeak but cling to Nero and bury his face into the man's shirt but peeked out, glancing up with his blue eyes. When Nero set him down small hands were reluctant to release their hold but managed to long enough for the hunter to get into bed and pull the covers over them both as they faced each other.

Nero brushed some stray hairs from Dante's face and rubbed his thumb over the kid's cheek feeling it still damp from drying leftover tears, "Get some sleep kid, you look like shit." he teased, pulling out a tiny smile from Dante before they both closed their eyes.

Nero couldn't remember when he'd fallen asleep but it hadn't taken long, waking up he shivered and groaned as he stretched his legs out and cracked his toes.HIs front was cold but his back was all toasty warm, during the night Dante had stolen most of the covers and curled up into a little ball all pressed into his back snoozing away.

His lips twitched upwards and Nero shuffled, trying to be slow and gentle not to disturb the sleeping bundle but pulled the covers back around himself to snuggle into the heat that had built into the covers.

This was how he much preferred the kid, relaxed and able to enjoy himself, because only now was Nero really realizing Dante hadn't been himself at all since coming to stay with him. He'd severely underestimated everything going on in Dante's head, he put on a charade of being an uncaring brat when he really did care, probably too much about everything.

Nero was determined to fix this, not much at first but slowly the kid had crept his way into the hunters normally tough heart. It wasn't something he wanted to admit even now and Nero would be beyond willing to cause himself emotional pain if it meant finding Dante the perfect place where the kid would be happy.

His thoughts got away from him, he had a lot to talk to Dante about when the kid woke up and before he knew it the small curled up bundle in front of him was stretching and yawning. Eyes peeked at him just over the covers, keeping the sheets tight over the rest of his face to shy away from Nero's soft gaze.

"Hi..."

"Hey kid, sleep alright?" he asked and got a nod in return. "You want to get our talk out of the way right now or do you wanna wake up a bit more first?"

"Let's....talk now, before I lose my nerve." the kid said under his breath but Nero's good hearing caught it just fine.

"Okay." the hunter himself had to take in a breath and hold it for a moment, letting it out slowly to keep himself calm and collected. "First things first, do you want to stay here with me? I've only ever talked about sending you off somewhere else because I thought you hated the thought of being here permanently."

"I...." the boy had to take a pause and collect his inner strength, "I want to stay here, with you. If you also wanted me here I mean."

"Then that's settled, I'm happy to have you around as long as you want to stay. That I promise kid. But if you're going to stay we do need to make some changes around here more than we already have."

Dante's eyebrows furrowed, "So conditions, like what?" he asked distrustfully.

"Not now and maybe not all at once but you need to tell me more about....this-" Nero gestured to Dante himself, "All that's going on with you about your family, and anything demon-related that might be happening with you. I want to be able to help you through things but I can't if I don't understand you at all."

In a grumble the kid said reluctantly, "Fair enough..."

"You've been doing really well with your school work but I want you to get out and do something social, pick some club or activity I don't care what but you need to go hang out with kids your age. If not then your other option is a public school." that one seemed to make   
Dante even more irritated but the kid said nothing cranky even if his tone said otherwise.

"Kay. I have a condition too."

"Oh?" Nero blinked slowly.

"Teach me to be a badass."

Nero couldn't hold it in, he spurted out with a loud laugh that shook his whole body, Dante shoved his chest lightly a few times and whined, "Don't laugh at me, it's not funny! I want to learn how to use a sword and gun like you do!"

"It's not that, it's just how you said it!" he kept chuckling but it died down softly as Dante's shoves started trying to cover his mouth to stifle the laughter. "You're too young right now, I'll start teaching you when you turn fourteen. That's when I started training so it feels right."

"No, condition says you have to train me _now_!" the kid demanded and he pushed as Nero's face a little rougher, larger hands wrapped around small wrists and pulled Dante closer and out of his huddle of the covers. "Ah let go!" he cried.

"Fourteen is my last offer." Fingertips found their ways just under Dante's shirt to his sides to tickle the spots Nero _knew_ would get the most reaction and cause the kid to start laughing and struggling against the attack. "Sto-Stop it~"

Nero cut the playing short and started to sit up, ruffling his hand through Dante's already messy white hair, "Welcome home kid. I'll start making breakfast."

Closing the bedroom door behind him he heard his charge call, "Try not to burn shit this time!" and couldn't help but smile to himself. "No promises."


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Little Dante's growing up, he turns fourteen and that comes both with its ups and downs. As usual the downs feel like they're weighing much more heavily than the ups, and he still had a lot of trouble admitting to Nero what's going on with him.

In a groggy haze Dante rubbed his sleep filled eyes and let his light footsteps press every squeak in the wooden floorboards, he knew how to avoid each one but chose not to. A yawn escaped him as he hit the final step and sniffed the air, "Hm?" there was no smell of breakfast, nothing smelt even slightly burnt or overcooked which was unusual, he'd become so accustomed to waking up to that.

His eyes snapped open when in a swift movement large hands grabbed him from under the arms and lifted him into the air and then slung him over their shoulder, "Happy fourteenth birthday kid!"

Well now he was pretty awake and couldn't stop the small smile pulling at his lips as he hung over Nero's shoulder lazily and yawned again, closing his eyes he muttered, "Tired, shush..."

"How can you be tired today, haven't you been waiting for today forever kid? Man when you first came here I remember you whining twice a day for _months_ about wanting to be fourteen so I would start training you to fight!" the man laughed.

Things had been relatively good the last two or so years, sure sometimes they still bickered but there was much less actual heat behind it and much more understanding. It helped that since their big talk long ago Dante had gotten enrolled in some different self-defense and martial arts classes, he would go to anything cheap that could get him a workout and expend extra energy while also building up any skill in fighting that he could before Nero would agree to train him.

All of that helped Dante have fewer anger issues and eased his anxieties being away from Nero since he had something else to focus his mind on other than school and tv, the only thing it didn't help was his insomnia. They were still working on figuring that one out.

"I'm happy, just sleepy." last night had been another restless one, as of late the young teen could swear he kept feeling eyes on him wherever he was. A pair of eyes just watching him from corners, the rooftops, even through the window in his room. He...well he hadn't had the courage to tell Nero that yet, the feeling made Dante feel like he was crazy but it was so persistent, the same feeling for the last month straight.

"Well you'd better wake up if you want to go get pizza for breakfast."

Lifting his head and suddenly awake the young man tried to push himself out of Nero's grasp, "Why didn't you say that first? Let's go!"

"Not yet, you smell so take a shower and put on some fresh clothes _then_ we can go!"

Taking the quickest and most thorough shower he possibly could Dante rushed out the front door with Nero smiling behind him, jumping around with all of his young energy unable to contain his excitement for pizza. "Hurry up Nero!" he called to the slowpoke way behind him on the street.

They devoured not one, but two pizza's together and just as the teen was finishing up his last piece and savoring every bite he heard a familiar and much welcomed voice. "Well well if someone isn't getting treated for their birthday." Lady seemed to appear from nowhere and slid a delicious looking strawberry sundae in front of the birthday boy whose eyes went wide as dinner plates and his mouth began to water.

"Thanks Lady, you're awesome!" taking a big bite Dante groaned when the woman ruffled his hair. "I'm heading out of town on a long job so I won't be seeing you guys for a while but I figure I can send off with giving you a little birthday present first. Well, be seeing you both, take care boys."

Letting Nero watch him eat the ice cream and fruit berries felt a bit awkward but that wasn't the only reason Dante's face started to feel hot. "Do you um...want some?"

"Wow you're sharing your favorite dessert with me? You must be getting older, last year you wouldn't even let me have one of the strawberries." As if waiting for permission Nero didn't make a move for the dessert until Dante handed him an extra spoon.

"Shut up, I offered so eat the damn ice cream. I just can't finish it is all, I'm full and Lady went through the trouble of buying it for me."

"Riiight." his guardian said not believing a word of that, Dante always had room to eat his favorite foods.

"Nero." he started saying and felt his mouth go dry but forced the words out anyway, "Why haven't you ever asked Lady out on a date?"

The man promptly choked on his bite of ice cream and swallowed hard before wiping his mouth and sputtering out, "Wh-What!? Where the hell did that question come from?"

Shrugging Dante glanced away and twirled a spoon between his fingers, "Just curious. I've been here two years but I've never seen you go on a date or so much as flirt with somebody." Which was fine, Dante preferred it that way and the thought of Nero flirting with someone burned something fierce in his chest.

He knew exactly what that feeling was telling him but Dante wasn't ready to accept it yet, maybe it would fade or go away in time.

"First off, Lady has someone so that isn't going to happen or I'd get my balls chopped off in a second. Otherwise I guess I'm just not interested in anyone, or looking for anyone...you of all people should know how bad I am at getting to know people." Nero said with a bit of exasperation.

"Hah that's true..." the kid let his voice trail off with relief. "You're always too busy to date anyways, didn't even consider that."

Leaving their usual diner Dante was stricken with that feeling again, the hairs on the back of his neck stood stiff and tickled, looking around as usual there was no one. No eyes trained on him even if he could _swear_ he felt them. "You coming Dante?" Nero called from up the street, "Did eating that pizza make you slow, I'm going to beat you home!"

"Ah, hell no you aren't!" rushing after his guardian Dante grabbed onto Nero's demonic arm and held on, slowly the tension in his mind eased away as it always did being close to the hunter. "Thanks, for the birthday pizza."

"You're acting all weird today, are you sick?" a human hand smacked into Dante's face to feel his forehead for any fever heat.

"No! I'm just, happy, is that a crime?"

Just like the previous year Nero had taken off the day from all types of work to spend time with the young man in his charge, today though started their devil hunter training. There was a perfect abandoned building on the outskirts of town that Nero sometimes used to practice himself, it showed by all of the dents in the walls, bullet holes and slashes, broken windows everywhere.

"We'll start with a gun, you've been brushing up on the gun safety stuff I showed you right?" He had and the gun Nero had gotten for him was piddly and light, not how Blue Rose felt whenever Dante had snatched it from Nero's pockets. "You'll work your way up." Nero responded when he saw the look on Dante's face.

Training from that day on became Dante's favorite part of the week, whenever they both had time together and were bored they would go and train. Within two weeks Nero was running out of things to teach Dante with the gun, he'd taken to it so quickly it was as if he'd been born with it in his hand, or both hands he should be more specific.

Not only was Dante great in his dominant hand, if they could call it that, but both hands almost equally with skill even if the kid was still or moving. So they quickly moved onto the basics for swords and hand to hand even if Nero was a bit hesitant to begin.

He was good at those things too but he didn't pick them up quite as naturally as the gun-wielding had, so time after time during their sparring Nero would beat him. Flipping him onto the mat they'd dragged into the old building, pinning him down over and over until Dante was too exhausted to continue and his body was left sore and sweaty.

The training was by far the best birthday present Dante could have asked for.

 

 

His wrists were grabbed and Dante felt himself uncontrollably losing his balance and being pressed down face first into the training mat with Nero's weight gentle but heavy pressed to his back. His cheeks grew red and a heat spread through his veins that he tried to think away with cold thoughts, "Dammit!"

Letting go the hunter sat back and smirked, "You're confident, that's good and you're getting really good. Right now the main thing I have over you is strength and years of practice, you'll get there kid, try not to get too frustrated over it."

"I know, I just want to be like you already so I can go on jobs with you." standing up from the mat Dante waved his hand meaning he was done for the day, his body was too sore to continue and he _really_ needed to get home and take a shower before he lost control and started growing a tent in his pants.

"That's why you want to learn this stuff?" Nero asked with surprise as they hopped in the old van to quickly make it home. "You want to work with me." he said more to himself than anything.

"Yeah." Dante nodded with confidence and smiled, "I think it'd be cool to hunt demons with you someday, so I can be your partner and watch your back." All of his nerves he channeled into his hands, fidgeting in his lap so that his voice could keep steady so that Nero knew how serious he was.

"Wow." Nero said breathily and reached a hand over to ruffle Dante's white hair, "You're being really cute right now I hope you know."

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!!"

Stubbornly neither let up until they got into the doors of the Devil May Cry, "I call the first shower!" Dante cried and rushed up to his room for fresh clothes and slammed the bathroom door a bit too hard in his fervor.

Normally when he had these feelings from sparring with Nero he would wash them all away with a cold shower, but as he reached his hand out to touch the chilly temperature there was a small voice in the back of his head telling him maybe he should try something else.

Switching the water to hot Dante palmed himself through his boxers he hadn't shed yet and shivered, "Fuck..." the smallest touch felt good and reignited all of the heat he'd been trying to stop thinking about that redirected to his dick. Stepping into the water Dante closed his eyes and started to touch himself, bracing himself against the wall with his free hand.

He wasn't naive to what this was but Dante had never tried masturbating before, but today he felt overwhelmed and ready at the same time. Biting his bottom lip as he grew harder in his pumping hand the teen sucked in a hard breath and started to lean his forehead against the cold tiles of the shower wall.

As his hand worked faster Dante couldn't help the images that rushed through his mind, pictures of the times Nero had come out of the shower with just a towel barely hanging around his waist because he was dumb and forgot clean clothes in his room, or the way it felt to have Nero pin him down on the training mat with so much strength but in a purely tender way.

He was pathetic, lasting maybe thirty seconds before he spilled everything that had been bottling up inside of him today to wash down the shower train. With some heavy breathing the blue-eyed boy looked down to the shower drain, "Fuck..." his body felt tingly and shivered even under the warm spray of the water.

Was it weird that he'd just gotten off thinking about the guy who was supposed to be his guardian, like a surrogate parent to him? Even so it had never felt that way between them, they got along well and Nero was always trying to be responsible for him but never once had Dante considered Nero a father or even big brother figure, that just felt off.

This crush of his was going to be the death of him if it ever got out into the open, the last thing Dante wanted was for Nero to become disgusted by him for having these feelings.

Leaving the bathroom in fresh clothes the white-haired man was right there waiting for his turn but sighed, "Why don't you ever dry your hair?" Grabbing a clean towel Nero began ruffling it through Dante's soaking wet strands. "You'll get sick when winter comes if you don't keep warm."

"Mn." he grunted and moved his hands to take over, going to his room and finishing up drying his hair but not very well before tossing the towel in the corner and shutting his door. Laying out flat on his bed he began fiddling with the necklace that hung around his neck, he always wore it other than in the shower but normally it was hidden under his clothes.

It was the first gift Nero had given him that wasn't a necessity and the teen loved it, running his fingers over the blue gem and the engraving marks around the edges gave him a similar feeling as when he was with Nero but not nearly as powerful and calming.

"Well well-" a cheeky and almost coy voice echoed from Dante's open window, the teen sat up with a gasp but glared at the human...no, it was a demon, weak but still a demon, sitting on the ledge outside and staring at him. "-You're an interesting little demon aren't you?"

"You...you're the one who's been spying on me!" this human-like demon gave the same feeling he'd been getting randomly for the longest time. "What the hell do you want?"

"Oh I'm just curious about you, I can feel demon power in your blood that's ready to burst forward but it's being heavily suppressed by something. I've been trying to figure it out but now I think I understand just what makes you tick little demon." he laughed and snorted in a disgusting manner.

"Stop calling me that, I'm not a demon!" Dante snarled and clenched his hand around his pendant.

"Then why are your eyes glowing right now? You have more demon than you know inside of you and the longer you suppress it the worse it will become later, oh but that's right you live with a devil hunter don't you? How he would hate if you were a monster."

"Shut up I swear I'm going to kill you if I catch you following me around again!" Dante yelled and ran to slam his hands on the windowsill from the inside to intimidate the demon, who flinched making Dante smirk.

"You're a weak little coward just trying to scare me aren't you?"

"That I am little demon, but I also want to see more of this." from his side of the window the demon pointed down at Dante's hands which were glowing slightly through his veins and his fingers had grown into claws, snatching them from the windowsill and holding them close to his chest the teen could feel them revert back to normal in his panic.

"You are capable of so much, I only want you to fulfill your potential little demon. I'll be seeing you." letting go of his perch the unnamed demon was gone leaving Dante a bit shaken and sliding down to sit on the floor after locking his window, as if that would help keep a demon out.

Rubbing his hands together Dante was trying to remind himself that he was human, he was, just because Nero had a demonic arm didn't make him a monster. Still it left him shaken to see his body change without his decision.

A knock on his door startled the teen, "Dante I'm going to make food you hungry?"

"N...Not right now I'll be down in a bit!" he called back, scooting over on the floor to his door to flick the switch and lock it then going back to rubbing his hands to feel the smooth human skin and non-claw fingers. "I'm human...I'm human..." he whispered.

A scary thought ran through his mind, maybe he hadn't just locked out a dangerous demon, he'd locked one inside.

 

 

The next day after that was the first Dante had taken his gun from Nero's stash and started sneaking it out of the house with him, he didn't feel safe without it even when he was with Nero. He wasn't so scared of that weakling and more afraid that he might hurt someone, if his temper became uncontrollable he could easily maim or even kill a human.

"Nero." he said a few days later as the two sat on the couch together watching junk on tv, "I wanna go to that fair that's opening up tomorrow. The one with the rides and games, and prizes."

Dante just wanted something to make him feel more human, he loved training but that made him feel strong and like a demon. A fair was something purely human, and if he could get Nero to agree to it could almost feel like a date, at least in Dante's imagination.

Looking through his bare wallet Nero tried to make sure his face didn't change, he didn't want Dante to know they'd been struggling with bills the last two months because of a big job he'd fucked up and lost a ton of money on. And he absolutely _refused_ to borrow more money from Lady after he'd finally paid her back everything he owed.

"How much do fairs even cost?"

With a shrug the teen smiled, "Like forty bucks?"

"Can you make due with thirty? I don't have a bunch of cash on me right now kid." Nero slid over a twenty and two fives, feeling his mind telling him not to give up the money but his heart saying that making Dante happy was worth having to walk to a job instead of driving.

"Thanks, this is going to be so much fun!"

He was fully under the assumption Nero was planning to go with him, so the next evening while Dante had excitedly gotten ready to go out and have fun with someone important to him his face fell when he saw Nero doing his pre-work routine. "You knew you had to work today?"

"Yeah kid, gotta make money so you can go to things like fairs." the man teased as he pulled on his shoes.

"Uh...right...I mean..I could wait to go another day, if you wanted to go? I can try to win you a dumb stuffed animal at one of those rigged games!" Dante laughed nervously as he crumbled the money he'd been given in his hands.

"Nah don't do that, go have some fun and I'll see you in the morning." When Nero left the house Dante felt glued to where he was in the middle of the living room. "It's not fun unless you go with me dick head."

He didn't need nearly this much money if it was just him, he'd been estimating in his head for two tickets and enough for two people to go on rides. Dante felt like a loser walking around the busy fairgrounds, watching friends and couples laughing and having a great time together.

Grumpily Dante bit into his caramel apple and looked around, he'd gone on two rides and fun as they were it just wasn't the same screaming on his own so he'd quickly given up at that, but he still had a few tickets he'd coughed out Nero's money for and he was determined to make the most of them.

Eyeing up the b-b gun booth he slapped down the rest of his tickets on the table. "I'll take however many shots this gets me." To be exact his tickets got him five rounds and the man in the booth winked at him, "Good luck kiddo these things are pretty tough."

The b-b gun was plenty different than a real one but after failing miserably on the first game Dante felt his determination rise and his hands glow as some power seemed to overtake his body. Annihilating the other four rounds left the booth guy in complete awe and when his body felt his own again Dante cleared his throat, "I uh, guess I just needed a warm-up."

After collecting his prizes the teen had to force himself not to run from the fairgrounds and head towards home on the dark streets. "Using your powers to win bags of stuffing, what a wonderful use of demonic powers." that creepy demon from before said from the shadows.

Dante dropped his prizes to the ground and pulled out his gun, aiming it right where he could feel the demon was standing, He wanted to shoot so badly but also didn't want to draw attention to himself in the city even if it was quiet out at the moment.

"You son of a bitch, tell me what you want or I'm going to tell Nero about you. He'll hunt you down and kill you before you can blink!" he threatened.

"Oh but if you do that little demon I'll spill all the secrets I've learned about you to him. I'll tell him how your mother really died, what is it that he believes again? Sickness? I'll tell him how you really feel about him, about your blood being _filled_ with demon essence more than anyone has in many years."

Firing off a round Dante heard it make contact but as he rushed into the nearby alleyway there was a splatter of blood, but no demon and his presence had all but disappeared on Dante's radar. "Fuck!" Putting his gun away the teen clenched his hands as they glowed,

"Don't explode, don't explode! I'm human, I'm human!" Curling his arms around his stomach slowly he moved to crouch on the ground and pressed his face into his knees.

"Nero.." he whimpered as he struggled with all of his might to suppress the powers that wanted to leak out of his pores as it built, and built, and kept building. "I just want it to stop!" he yelled, it echoing in the narrow alleyway.

Unable to stand it much longer his body seemed to move on its own, standing up and running, pulling his fist back and punching it straight through a lamp post near the street where his prizes laid gathering dirt. The lamp didn't just break, it fell over into the street and power spread through it like veins cracking it apart until it fell apart into chunks on the ground, the edges of the pieces oozing like they'd been melted away and sizzling like acid.

Releasing the power felt good, no better than good, it was addictive but Dante forced his fist to unclench and the remaining power to fade away so he could run both hands through his messy hair. All he wanted was to crawl into Nero's bed and cuddle close, to be told that everything would be alright and that this didn't change anything.

Instead he dragged the dirty stuffed animals home and left them on Nero's bed along with the leftover money he hadn't used at the fair, moving all like he was on autopilot, and locked himself away in his room and curled up in bed inside of the otherwise empty Devil May Cy.

Pressing a hand over his eyes Dante sniffled, fighting sad and anger mixed tears back along with the middle of a full blown anxiety attack. "Just stop...just _stop_ , why can't I just be normal?"

 

 

When Nero made it home he couldn't help but give a stifled laugh at the huge stuffed animals laying on and taking up the entirety of his bed. "Cute." he muttered not knowing that on the next rooftop over a pair of demonic eyes were spying on the household, a grin on the demons face as it watched the young man struggling with his thoughts in bed.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If things weren't breaking apart between these two bad enough it just had to get worse. Dante is upset, very upset, Nero's going on a date with some lady he's never even heard of and it hurts. Things feel like they're falling apart for him with Nero going out with some woman and these powers pushing him to his breaking point.

Leaning back against part of the wall of the abandoned warehouse that was riddled with holes Nero ran his human hand through his freshly cut short hair, he kept touching the prickly short strands and they felt foreign. He'd never had his hair this short before and with the new look came a self-conscious feeling Nero hadn't felt clench in his gut since he was a kid, it didn't help that he kept catching Dante staring at him since the haircut.

That wasn't what he needed to be worried about now, something was up with the kid he was sure of it but couldn't place what it was about exactly. The last week he had been completely withdrawn, talking very little, spending a lot of time locked away in his room, taking a ton of showers, and he hadn't been asking for pizza half as much as he normally did. Nero was hoping it was just puberty really hitting the teen but something felt off and nagged at his mind telling him that he needed to be sure.

Right now he was just watching as Dante took a lazy stance with his pistol and shot with perfect aim each time firing into the big stuffed animals they had set up at one end of the warehouse. They'd been cute the first few days and funny to throw at each other but soon Nero and Dante had run out of patience keeping them around, that's when the kid had a brilliant idea. Use them for target practice.

After a few more shots echoed through the barren building Dante sighed and turned to Nero, "I don't feel like doing this today, can we just go home?"

Standing up off of the wall the man blinked, "You want to quit early, before we even do sword or hand to hand practice?" Moving close Nero knelt down and touched Dante's shoulders to look the kid in the eyes more properly. "Hey...hey look at me, is there something up? I'm just getting a feeling that there's something on your mind."

Young blue eyes looked so far away and hidden behind Dante's straight but shaggy long hair, "No I'm good, just been tired lately." he said without even attempting a smile.

Nero forced himself to smile hoping it might be contagious and reached, brushing some hairs out of Dante's face. "Maybe you need a haircut too." he said softly, "Let's go home then."

On the drive home as Nero gripped the steering wheel with his devil bringer it began to glow softly and he glanced over at Dante, he couldn't tell if the kid was sleeping or felt sick but his eyes were closed and he was all curled up on the passenger seat holding his stomach. This had been happening in the last week as well.

HIs arm had always reacted to Dante's powers and that wasn't new but the powers hadn't crept up in a while since they'd been getting Dante a proper way to expend the build up. So the number of times his arm had flared up over the last week meant something along with the way Dante had been acting, again he just hoped it was puberty being tough with a mixture of demonic blood.

He'd learned a while back that pushing over and over and getting harsh with Dante was not the way to handle things the teen hid from him, that only made things worse.

 

 

Romance wasn't something anywhere near the top of Nero's priority list. As greedy as it sounded at first his tip-top priority was money, he'd learned young that though money didn't necessarily buy happiness it was a big start in the right direction. Money gave them a place to live, food, the van, and any fun things Dante wanted to do as he grew up. So in a way Dante was his top priority but was in spot two because money came first so that he could take care of Dante in the first place.

He had been on dates, he'd been _with_ a handful of men and women, enough to know he could swing either way depending on the person. It had been a long time since he'd pursued anyone or been the pursued, there hadn't been anyone like that in his life since he'd met Kyrie when he was nearly nineteen and his crush on her had festered on and off.

Nero had never known that crushes could be like the waves, sometimes growing large and then suddenly small or vice versa over short or long periods of time. It all really depended on the time and how he was feeling at the time.

So that morning when he was standing in the corner of the Devil May Cry trying to fix up an old JukeBox he'd bought at a closeby rummage sale for cheap and Kyrie walked in through the doors there was no telling how he'd feel. It was an immediate burst of warmth as they hugged and greeted each other but not before Nero stowed his demonic arm away into his coat pocket, "You didn't tell me you were coming to visit." he couldn't stop smiling.

"It's been so long since you came to visit me so I decided to visit you, surprise! I hope you aren't busy, I can wait if you have to work or do right now." she said pulling back and touching her chin realizing how brash she'd been coming in here and assuming Nero had time for her.

"What? N-No I don't have anything right now!" He did in a little while but he was willing to push that back to spend time with Kyrie.

With her usual soft smile she pushed her long auburn hair off of her shoulders, "Why don't we eat lunch together? I don't have a lot of time honestly while I"m here but I just wanted to see you no matter what."

"Lunch sounds wonderful how about-"

There was a tug on his jacket, "I thought we were reheating those burritos for lunch today?" Dante asked with a small forced pout on his face as he stood behind Nero and peeked around him like a little kid at their guest.

"Oh who is this??" Kyrie asked with absolute excitement.

Dante knew right off the bat that this woman was very different to Nero than Lady was, she had no smell of blood or demon surrounding her. She was normal and not in their type of life, there was a naturally calm and kind aura surrounding her and laced through her voice, not to mention the way Nero had reacted when seeing her told Dante all he needed. Which was that he was jealous.

Nero, on the other hand, looked frozen for a split moment, caught between a rock and a hard place. "Uhh...this is Dante, he's been living with me for a while." he said leaving it completely vague for her to interpret.

"Aw that's sweet, you always did have a big soft heart under all of that armor Nero." she cooed and nudged Nero's arm with her elbow. Leaning over Kyrie extended her hand to shake, "My name is Kyrie, it's wonderful to meet you Dante."

Shit. She was nice, like really nice. Now he couldn't hate her even if his jealousy was getting worse, he shook her hand. "Yeah um, cool to meet you too."

"Wow I've never seen anyone else with Nero's weird white hair, what a strange coincidence." standing up again she became flustered, "Nero! You cut your hair!" spouting it as she'd just realized it and then calmed down still smiling with embarrassment, "It looks nice."

Crossing his arms Dante grew a determined look in his eyes, "So, where did you two meet?" his tone accusatory and catching Nero's ear. "Kyrie you said you don't have long, why don't we go out to eat, just the two of us?"

"I'd love that but what about Da-?"

"Oh he'll be fine, he's got burritos!" touching Kyrie's shoulders he guided her over to the door, "Hey kid don't break anything while I"m gone, an hour max!" Just like that Dante was left with his head and heart sizzling with jealousy.

This was a time Dante was sure he'd just be mad, mad enough to throw something through the window...but it wasn't. After standing there for a moment his jealousy settled and turned into something else, not anger but instead sadness. HIs face sunk and he looked down at the ground and shoved his hands into his jean pockets. "Whatever..."

The most he did was go over and kick the jukebox to the side before locking up the store behind him and going for a long walk towards the town square. It had been a while since he'd come out here to people watch but this place was always bustling so being by himself felt less alone.

Finding an empty bench Dante laid himself out over it completely and looked up at the clouds as he listened to lots of people having different conversations and some kids playing a game of kickball in the patches of grass off to the side.

"You look like someone just broke up with you!" suddenly there was a girl hovering over him from the backside of the bench, she had long blond hair and wore pink frilly clothes. Gasping in surprise Dante started to sit up, "What the hell!?... How is that any of your business?"

Walking around the bench she shoved his legs off to take a seat next to him and sighed, "I guess I'm just a hopeless romantic so I couldn't help but be curious when I saw you. Tell me about your woes, weep into my arms!" she said dramatically and then giggled.

Glaring at her and then straight ahead at nothing Dante crossed his arms and huffed, leaning back heavily into the bench. "It's fucking stupid." but he started to spill his guts to her anyways. He told her about his situation, the age difference, how Nero was really his guardian, about Kyrie, and all the feelings he had, but left out all of the demonic information. "I don't know what to do..."

"Wow..." the girl said tapping her chin with interest, "That is a big problem, and it's not like you can just romance him because you're so underage it might creep him out."

"Exactly!" he exclaimed and blinked over at her, it just surprised him that someone understood so easily. "You don't think it's weird or creepy, gross?"

"No way, love is love! From what it sounds like he's known this girl for a while and hasn't made a move, I'd bet he still chickens out on asking her out for a real date." she said sounding sure of herself, "So go home and once you see and talk to him you're going to feel so much better, and sometimes come back and meet me at the park to tell me how right I was!"

A little weight had lifted off of his chest, he did feel better talking to this girl. "I'm Dante."

"Patty." she smiled at him, "I"m here most days around this time when I take some of the little kids from the local orphanage out to play and get snacks. Come see me again sometime, now shoo on home!"

 

 

They only headed out to a nice little diner down the street, not the one he and Dante usually went to for pizza and other food but someone that Nero had never been to. He was so nervous about everything, he wanted to keep the status quo with Kyrie and not make her think differently of him.

That's why he'd been so worried about telling her the things going on in his life like him taking in Dante...for the last two years, or about his demonic arm...despite her already knowing what he did for a majority of his jobs.

Sitting down they both just ordered some tea and sandwiches to eat, Nero tapped his finger against his class nervously. It had become second nature at times to hide his arm so that didn't affect him much, he wasn't ashamed of it as much as he used to be but there were times when that childish self-conscious feeling returned. Kyrie always tended to bring that back when he saw her.

They talked about this, about that, about nothing really important and for the moment Nero felt like he was an ordinary human with a boring life, just like Kyrie. It occurred to him that he might like to feel that more, the closest he ever got was sometimes with Dante.

With the kid he felt like himself most of the time, he didn't _have_ to hide anything from his charge, he knew that Dante would likely care about him no matter what and accept whatever the problem was. After all that Nero had done for Dante there was a bond that had grown between them, a bod and lots of understanding with little room for doubt about how much they meant to each other.

So why was he still chasing this human feeling with Kyrie? Maybe, just maybe he could have his cake and eat it too. One side of his life that he could be his fucked up devil hunter self with a demon arm, and perhaps if things progressed have a long distance girlfriend he could visit a few times a month and get that high of being normal from.

It sounded fucked up and like he was using the people around him but to be honest, he deserved it didn't he? To be happy? Nero rarely asked for anything and worked hard, busted his ass for other people. He just wanted to keep this feeling a little longer.

"Kyrie would you...would you wanna go on a date with me sometime?"

 

 

When Nero made it home he'd expected something to be broken, strangely enough it was the opposite. Dante was sitting on the ground in front of the Jukebox and fiddling with it, the laptop open next to him and some video tutorial playing. Just on time the machine lit up and suddenly started playing a song from a random record inside. "Ha, finally!"

"Well shit, you got it working!" Nero praised with a grin. "As a treat why don't we get pizza for dinner?"

Dante had been smiling hearing the man's praise but then something clenched in his stomach as he closed the laptop and stood up. "You seem really happy, did you have a good lunch with your friend?"

"Y-Yeah.." with a blush Nero rubbed the back of his neck, "We're going on a date next week." A date, like a real date? Now it wasn't just jealousy in Dante's heart, it was anger, he really wanted to just shove his fist through the jukebox he'd just fixed.

"Are you kidding me?" he asked in a flat tone that wiped the smile off of Nero's face.

"What's that supposed to mean Dante?"

"How do you even know her? You've never mentioned her to me before and now suddenly you're asking her on a date."

"I met her on a job, she and her brother are close friends of mine but they live far off so I don't see them often. I've known them for quite a long time. Look kid you've got this look in your eyes and I'm not liking it, or where we're going with this conversation." his tone held a warning.

"If she's so special how come you don't talk about her? How come she didn't know about me, why doesn't she know about your arm!?" his voice kept rising higher and higher until Dante was yelling and his eyes began to glow that fiery red. "You're such an idiot!"

"And you're a brat! Weren't you the one asking me about dating a while ago, well I asked someone that I like out so what's the big problem? Don't." he pointed at Dante with his devil bringer, "Don't start getting like that I see those eyes."

"Good then you know I'm really pissed because you're a jackass and an idiot!"

"What the _fuck_?" Nero sneered and stepped over, "Seriously Dante where the fuck is this all coming from? I thought things were getting better between us but now you're starting this fight over something ridiculously stupid and that has nothing to do with you." he tried to gently touch the kids head but his hand was knocked away roughly.

"Talk to me."

It had nothing to do with him? It had everything to do with him and his feelings but Nero didn't know that. He had no idea the swirl of emotions and feelings Dante had for him all deep in his heart.

"Sometimes I really hate you..." with that Nero took a jolted step back like he'd been shocked.

That wasn't what he'd meant to say...he'd never wanted to use that word in regards to Nero. Hate was so strong and not what he meant at all, any word could have been better than hate. You make me, angry, sad, furious, frustrated, all of the above, but never hate.

Opening his mouth to say something again the kid tried to say something but then shut his mouth as he silently walked over to pull his shoes on.

"Hey where are you going kid?" Nero's tone was different, it was hard like a shell and lacked its usual affection.

"I...yeah I do just um...I'll be back in a bit I...I forgot something-" he mumbled and rushed out the door and back to the town square, hoping that Patty might still be there. He'd only just met her but she was the only person he knew to talk to this stuff about.

To his luck after running the whole way he spotted that pink frilly dress a mile away and rushed over, "Patty!" he couldn't help the watery look to his eyes. "You were fucking _wrong_. They're going on a date next week and...and I said some things I didn't mean."

"There was always a chance of that happening I guess." she didn't look too saddened by it until she saw the sad look in Dante's blue eyes, then a determined expression crossed her face. Grabbing the boy's shoulders with her smaller hands she exclaimed, "I'm gonna fix this!"

"How? They're probably going to have a great time, fall in love, get married, and I'll be like a _son_ to him or some gross shit!" Dante snipped and rubbed his sleeve under his nose, it didn't seem to bother Patty one bit.

"I'm going to teach you all about romance, and figure out a way for you to make up for what you said to him, we'll dress you up and make you irresistible or...NO!" she cried and pulled her hands back to clench into fists and raised them into the air. "We'll use the most powerful weapon the romance genre has, jealousy! We're going to make him insanely jealous, so jealous he'd wait a century to date you!"

"That's great and all but I'm a kid, what does he have to be jealous about?"

"Easy, he got himself a date so let's do one better. You just got yourself a fake girlfriend Dante."

So that's where they were going to take this? It was crazy and such a kid idea but maybe it was just crazy enough to work. "Patty...I think we're going to be good friends." the two exchanged wicked smiles.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dante and Patty are scheming, Nero goes on his date.

Nero was slouched out over the couch with his legs crossed as some dumb reality show played buzzing on the tv, faintly he could hear the ticking of the clock on the wall. Every second ringing in his ears, it was slowly driving him mad and each time he would glance at the clock only moments had passed since the last time.

He wasn't going to lie it really hurt, and it had shocked him down to his core, at that little four letter word. _Hate_. Did Dante hate him sometimes? Something told him the kid just said it in the split moment without thinking but that didn't lessen the pain of hearing it and feeling that comment sink in.

Nero had sent text after text in the last few hours as the day passed by slow but steady.

 _To: Dante_  
_Hey you coming home soon?_

 _To: Dante_  
_Didn't get into trouble, did you? lol_

 _To: Dante_  
_Text me when you can I'm starting to get worried._

 _To: Dante_  
_I'm serious, text me or I'm going to come looking for you._

As the clock chimed eleven at night Nero shoved himself up from the couch and clicked the tv off restlessly, "That's enough, I can't just sit around any longer." he muttered to himself and within minutes he was out the door. Dante had to be around somewhere nearby, there were only so many places the kid went and most were closed, he was probably just wandering around the local area.

At least he hoped so.

Nero spent an hour searching with no luck before going back to the Devil May Cry, he wasn't done looking but before he headed out further into the city he wanted to check if his young charge had returned home on his own. He sighed with relief seeing Dante's shoes at the doorway and his bag against the wall but he still couldn't help but peek into the teen's room just to see if he was there, he was and snoring away softly in bed.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow they would hash things out, one of them would break and apologize like always when something went too far between them. Easy to say sleep didn't come too easily to Nero that night, he was restless and his mind going through too many thoughts for actual rest.

He woke up tired, frustrated, and in a grumpy mood. In slow strides he walked downstairs and sniffed the air, "Hm?" something smelled...good? One of the most wonderful sights was waiting for him in the kitchen, for the first time ever he saw Dante at the stove cooking breakfast in Nero's blue apron that was too long for him and his hair was clipped up out of his face with some adorable barrettes. _Cute..._ his sleep mind thought as he approached.

Blue eyes snapped towards him, Dante wasn't smiling but he wasn't glaring either, "Morning." the kid muttered and started scraping some food into plates, it didn't smell burnt so that was a plus. "Um, morning." he answered back.

HIs sleepy body moved all on its own, wrapping his arms loosely around Dante from the side and pressed his cheek into the boy's soft white hair. "You're home, and you're cooking breakfast." Nero started to smile tiredly, "I feel like I'm dreaming this morning."

The hunter didn't catch the pink color that flooded Dante's cheeks because of their close contact, "I just felt like its don't think too much of it..." He relaxed into Nero's hug and didn't want to part but cleared his throat, "If you want hot food we should eat now."

A nice breakfast helped Nero wake up a bit enough that his mind was working better, he put together that if Dante made him breakfast that was essentially an apology. It was just what he'd been hoping for last night, things would go back to normal soon enough between them.

Before he could even take the dishes to the sink Dante had beaten him to it and was washing their breakfast stains off them in the sink. Moving aside his charge Nero started to dry the dishes without being asked, after the plates he couldn't help himself and reached to touch the red barrettes in Dante's hair. "I haven't seen these before, they're kind of cute."

"I'm borrowing them from my girlfriend."

"Wh-What?" Nero sputtered out, "Haha you're joking, I got it!"

Shaking his head Dante turned his nose up a bit, "No, I have a girlfriend. I met her yesterday while I was out."

The hunter blinked a few times slowly, "You went out for a few hours...and got a girlfriend." He hated that, Nero _really_ fucking hated hearing that. Just the thought of Dante dating made him uncomfortable beyond belief but if he voiced that it would just make him a hypocrite. In Dante's eyes he didn't know Kyrie all that well but they were going on a date even though the kid was against it.

"That-That's....great..." he grits out, unsure really what to say. "Do I get to meet this mysterious girl who said yes to you the day you met?"

"Yeah sure, she's coming over this morning and we're gonna go out for a bit. Which reminds me, can I have like ten bucks so we can get some snacks?" Okay so Patty hadn't advised him to put on this attitude but Dante's jealousy was getting the better of him and watching Nero giving off a similar attitude towards him was something he was relishing in, he wanted more of it.

A short while after doing the dishes Nero came out of the shower upstairs and came back down, seeing Dante was talking to someone through the half-closed front door. "Who's at the door kid?"

"Hm? Oh this is Patty, my _girlfriend_!" the teen emphasized and let a very adorable and age appropriate looking blond girl inside. "Hello, you must be Nero! Nice to meet you!"

Fishing out a little money from his wallet it was quickly snatched from his hand, "Hey be sure to come back early enough to do your online school work Dante!" Nero called as the two kids disappeared out the door, leaving him alone in the house until he had to get to work in a bit.

 

 

"So how did it go?" Patty asked as they took a seat on the bench in the town square, it was quiet in the morning with few people coming through.

"Well..." Dante rubbed the back of his neck, "I made him breakfast like you said I should and he seemed happy, he hugged me." Just the thought of that hug made Dante's chest feel light as a feather but that feather soon turned to lead remembering how the rest of the morning had gone.

"I did get snippy with him when I told him about you and me, he _did_ seem jealous. I think, he was getting weird about it but pretty sure I went too far with everything." touching his own cheeks Dante could feel his face was warm and he was blushing just thinking about Nero, that hug was still running through his mind and keeping him flustered.

"That spark of jealousy is really all we needed anyway." she said crossing her arms and then her legs in a lady-like manner, "It's a spark that will ignite the fire of love between you both!"

"Gah you are so embarrassing!" the boy stuck his tongue out and made a face, "That is so mushy Patty."

"Look you're the one in love and chasing your guy, sometimes mushy is just what you need...but not yet. We need to let the jealousy fester for a while, you said he's going on a date this upcoming week right? That's perfect, we'll see how that goes and I'll figure out the next step after that."

"Wait he's still going, isn't the point of this to make him _not_ want to go on the date?" Dante asked with a bit of worry, "I really don't want him to go."

Patty's face softened a tad, "Awe...Look I know it's hard but he has free will, we can't guilt him into quitting on that date or you're just starting this relationship off on the wrong foot. Just trust me, I'm going to give you the best chance at this that I can." she promised.

"I do trust you." which was surprising especially for Dante to say, he wasn't an extremely trustful person, you had to earn that, but Patty seemed genuine and very invested. He liked her, that was all, and if he wasn't practically in love with Nero maybe he would have asked her on a real date.

"Can I keep these?" the boy asked and touched the clips in his hair, "He seemed to like them." Dante didn't want to say it but he liked them too, he wanted his hair to be longer and not short like Nero's but sometimes it got in his face and was annoying, but it wasn't quite to the point where he could pull it back into a ponytail or braids.

"Of course, in fact I've got a whole wardrobe planned for you if things go how I want, which means we're going to need money. You need to save whatever money you get from now on and we're going shopping at some point to get you some things." PUlling out a notebook with a pink cover and sparkles on it her eyes scanned over a page, "Yeah...we can definitely work with a budget so it doesn't need to be a lot, we can find some nice clothes at some of the local thrift shops."

"Wait, shopping? I don't remember agreeing to that! I'm not a girl I don't need fancy outfits Patty!" he exclaimed.

"Of course you do! I'll compromise, just one outfit. Think of it like a date outfit, something you can wear to impress and catch attention."

Something told Dante he didn't have much of a choice in this, well he was desperate and had asked her for help in the first place.

Over the time between then and Nero's date Dante felt like he was going insane with so much going on with him. On one hand he was trying to act normal at home but had started to do little things around the house like make meals as Patty had suggested, along with reminding Nero at least once a day about his _girlfriend_ and going out with her.

Then there were the small worries, he still was upset over what he'd said to Nero even if things seemed normal as ever between them on that aspect, and he was constantly thinking about Nero going on a date with that girl Kyrie.

On the complete opposite hand, he was still having problems with his powers. The more stress he felt in his mind and body the more he had to hold back those little flare-ups during the day, which resulted in a lot of pain and muffled crying fits at night. He hadn't felt that demonic presence much as of late, there had been one time during the day when he was out with Patty going shopping as she'd asked and that tingle tickled his back, but as he turned to look it was gone in a flash. Dante hadn't felt it since.

"Geez how pathetic, I can't believe how much sleep you've lost this week because you're worried this guy is going to enjoy a date with that girl." Patty giggled as she was putting makeup underneath Dante's eyes to cover up the dark circles that had grown there.

"I know." he smiled lightly, "I feel pathetic but I just think about it all night." Dante lied easily, he was worried but it wasn't enough of a worry to make him lose sleep. What did make him lose sleep were these powers that wouldn't calm the fuck down and leave him alone, when they tended to burst out at night in his room and had started to flare up physically more than often. Not only did his body sometimes changed into more demonic features like sharp nails and rough skin but waves of energy pulsed out from his body, Nero didn't know it but Dante had accidentally ripped up part of his mattress and gashes in a few others things in his room. That and...well he might have cracked part of his window and patched it up with duct tape.

"There you go, all patched up. Try not to rub it off but I'll patch you up again tomorrow if I find time to come over. I might need to watch some of the younger kids tomorrow so I'm not sure yet, the day after for sure." Patty held out her little compact and tube of makeup. "You can always do it yourself, it's not hard."

"I know but it looks way better when you do it."

"Cause I"m the best right?" the blond girl smirked and watched her friend frown and groan, "Yes, because you're the best." It was best not to fight with Patty on little things like this, he wasn't going to win.

"Thought so! When is your hot man-crush supposed to be home anyway?"

"Mn, anytime." Dante sighed and looked at the clock, it was getting close to eight at night and the teen was trying to be patient waiting for Nero to come home from his date.

Patty nodded, "I have to get going, try not to stress too much okay?" her eyes softened into something sweet like Dante hadn't seen before. "You know...I really am rooting for you two but if things don't work out with Nero there are other people who will like you."

Sometimes Patty could really read him more than he cared for, but maybe that was part of her charm. It was something he had started to cherish about her in their short friendship, she could see right through him at times and call him out on any bullshit he tried to hide. He had told her a bit of how he'd come to live with Nero, she knew Dante didn't really have anyone else in his life either and she'd seemingly easily put together that the boy had a lot of self-esteem issues.

He felt like maybe Nero was the only one in the world who could love him, whether that love was romantic or platonic, yet here this girl was telling him otherwise. "I...like you, I know you haven't told me everything like you have Nero but I do really like you. You're a good person and I can tell you have a lot of heart just waiting to be used. I just um..." swallowing Patty had to take a moment to collect herself.

"Patty...?"

"I kind of like-like you, this last week and a half have been some of the most fun I've had in a long time."

Dante could see where her feelings stemmed from, they got along well almost from the get-go. They were both devious little teens with a passion for some friendly mischief and strangely enough a romantic heart. He liked listening to Patty talk about just about anything, she always spoke with so much passion it was hard not to get invested into the subject even when it was a thing like makeup or fashion.

He didn't feel the same in the end, and he could see in her eyes that Patty already knew. "I'm not pushing anything on you, I just wanted to tell you how I felt. It's a load off of my chest that you know now, and even after all of this stuff is settled between you guys we're still going to hang out, we're besties now you and me." Patty wasn't one to be pushed aside so easily and Dante wouldn't have it any other way.

"Besties." he agreed and held up his pinky with a smile, "I'm really glad you bugged the piss out of me that day on the bench." That statement made Patty's face just completely light up as she linked their pinky's together and shared a smile with him.

After being left on his own Dante paced around the bottom floor of the Devil May Cry trying to expend any demonic energy he could work off and let out in small motions. It was that time of the evening when the power was built up inside of him and started to hurt physically, he took a ten minute cold shower to push that feeling down, it would help for an hour or two max.

Just after nine at night Dante had finally gotten comfortable sitting on the couch, the energy wasn't being painful at the time and he was getting sleepy, he probably would have dozed off if it weren't for Nero coming home and locking the door behind him. Dante perked up but didn't get up to greet the man, he opened his mouth but halted any words seeing the look on Nero's face when the guy turned around.

He looked absolutely exhausted and not in a good way, he looked emotionally tired and strung out, had the date gone that bad? If it went the way Nero looked Dante would have thought he'd feel happier, but instead he was disappointed for Nero. The man had been looking forward to the date so much.

Kicking off his shoes Nero walked over to the couch, their eyes meeting but no words exchanged, letting out a long sigh the hunter crawled onto the couch and just collapsed, his head landing in Dante's lap. The boy's hands shot up awkwardly hanging in the air unsure where to put them with the sudden weight in his lap. "U-Um!"

"Just...let me stay here for a few minutes...please..." Nero's voice was unlike Dante had ever heard, it was quiet and vulnerable, hurting. Slowly he placed one hand down on the couch and the other on top of Nero's short white hair, "Sure." he said softly back.

"Did it go um, that bad?" Dante asked with hesitance and started to play his fingers through the short white strands and gently tugging them in non-painful ways. The look on Nero's face said most of it so the teen spoke up again, "You know that I didn't really want you to go but I'm sorry, I was never hoping for you to have a bad time."

"No I know that." the hunter said, "I think I've just finally snapped back to reality. Kyrie is everything I'd wanted growing up, in my head she symbolizes everything I could have had if I had a normal human life. But finally going out with her I realize we're just too different, as much as she tries Kyrie just doesn't understand _this_ part of me." Nero lifted up his demonic hand. "Maybe not the best first date topic but I tried showing it to her finally."

"How did she take it?"

"It was awkward, the little conversation we managed dropped off even more. I feel like an idiot."

Dante could swear he saw little beads of tears forming in Nero's eyes, a shot of guilt panged through him. "Sorry, I know you really like her....maybe you two could work it out?"

"No, no I don't think so. I"m disillusioned to all of this now, I'm not normal and that's okay. Maybe if I end up with someone it'll have to be in my line of work so they understand things about me a normal person just couldn't." Taking in a slow breath Nero closed his eyes as Dante played with his hair, "I'm alright with it, but it still hurts right now."

"I understand, sort of. Not just about tonight but lots of things, I'm someone you can talk to about stuff like your arm or work and I won't be put off or disgusted." Dante knew he was too young to catch Nero's eyes but that didn't mean he couldn't partially step into a partner role, he could be there when Nero needed some emotional upkeep. Listen to him talk about hard jobs or things he worried about.

"Thanks kid, that means a lot to me. It's a relief that I've got someone looking out for me." a tiny smile tugged at Nero's lips as he rested his eyes comfortably feeling loved by this teen who was having a rare moment of pouring out as much love as he was capable of right now.

"I want to look out for you, just like you do for me...I care about you so much Nero...Nero?" Dante called gently but stifled a small laugh as a snore groaned out of the man. "Asleep huh? Just my luck."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter took a bit longer I've had an extremely long work week with few breaks, but I have off in a few days so the next chapter should come out fairly quicker. AND get ready for some angst, some of this demon plot stuff is about to DROP on our boys.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is a lot of angst, a lot of dialogue and information, but everything is finally entirely out in the open. With nothing clouding him over now Dante only had room to grow. That doesn't mean their future will be all sunshine but from here on their storms will be fought together instead of separately.

What an absolute disaster...

He'd taken Kyrie out to a nice restaurant, not fancy but just something quaint and enjoyable. At first things had started out nice with little conversations, Kyrie told him how her brother Credo was doing but soon the conversation dwindled off to things like the weather and work.

Nero had told her about his average jobs and even about a bodyguard one he'd taken for a day at some local event. The entire time his arm had been hidden in his long coat pocket, he'd been clenching and unclenching the fist nervously

This had been what he'd wanted, to feel normal and talk about boring things with Kyrie like an everyday human being, so why didn't it feel as good as when he imagined it? It finally started to dawn on the hunter that being a human did sound nice, but he just wasn't that person and never would be.

Fully embracing that type of lifestyle also felt like he'd be turning his back on his entire business at the Devil May Cry which specialized in helping others with demon problems, and more importantly rejecting Dante. The kid in his life that meant so much to him, the world even, and was part demon or more, he couldn't turn his back on Damte of all people.

So albeit rudely Nero cut into Kyrie's conversation about the last time she'd been in church the hunter decided then was the perfect time to startle her with an introduction to his devil bringer. Her eyes had gone wide and they both went silent for a long moment before they talked about it.

She was kind as ever and accepting, but not as accepting as Nero had hoped. There was a notable distance and hesitance now in her eyes and voice, so both in agreement they'd decided to just stay casual friends and cut their date short.

As a gentleman Nero dropped Kyrie off as the bus station for her to head home and then walked home by himself, at first stuffing his arm into his pocket to hide it from prying eyes but then frowning and pulling it back out. He didn't need to hide, if people cared about him then they would accept his weird arm and if not, then they weren't worth fighting to have a relationship with.

Kyrie would likely warm up to his arm but Nero would never forget the look and slight fear in her eyes when she first laid eyes on it. He couldn't help but compare it to when Dante had first seen it and the warm feeling that had squeezed his chest when that adorable kid had instantly accepted it.

He really hoped Dante was still awake when he got home.

Not long after that thought he was happily snuggling in the kid's lap and relaxing on the couch as young fingers played and tugged at his hair and scalp.

Maybe he shouldn't have spilled everything that happened to a fourteen-year-old, it wasn't Dante's worry to have but the words all came spilling out. When Dante told him after that he was there to listen, to help, to be there for Nero, he felt that familiar squeeze in his chest.

The hunter couldn't help but smile softly and drift off into a light snooze without meaning to.

 

 

After all of that Nero thought his relationship with Dante would have been better than ever, instead the teen continued to isolate himself in his room. Now more than ever, it used to just happen at nights or in the evening but now he was barely leaving his room unless for food, or shower, he'd even been hogging the laptop in his room to do his homeschooling.

A week and a half passed like that, he tried his best between work to draw Dante out of his room, to talk, anything, but nothing was working and tensions were on the rise between them yet again because of Nero's gentle prodding and pushing.

Why did it always have to be this rollercoaster between them? Why couldn't things just stay calm and happy as they both wanted?

A few more days crept by and finally when Nero got home from work one late evening he decided it was time they hash this out again. Sure if he pushed or yelled at Dante there might be a bad fight and some things might get broken but if they could also break down some of the walls between them there could be a more lasting peace between them.

Not even bothering to take his shoes off the hunter marched right upstairs and stood in front of Dante's door, clearing his throat, running a hand through his hair and taking in a deep breath to settle his nerves before putting on his game face.

Before he could knock his devil bringer began to glow, bright and shining, and then almost like an explosion he could _feel_ a wave of some type of demonic energy explode from within the room in front of him. The wooden door cracked up the middle, the sound of a few things hitting the floor and Dante's window completely shattering.

With no hesitance Nero shoved the door open with his demonic arm, almost breaking it further with how hard he'd flung it wide open. "Dante, are you okay!?"

There wasn't a demon in the room thankfully like Nero had suspected, it was worse and something Nero had never wanted to see.

Dante was sitting on the ground in the middle of his room, collapsed to his knees more like it, and curled up holding his stomach and rocking in pain as his eyes glowed red and pained tears rained down his cheeks.

The teen was radiating an almost purple aura that leaned towards a reddish hue and it pulsed, Nero's devil bringer was glowing in time with the pulsing just reinforcing where it was picking demonic energy up from. "Shit, what's going on!?" Falling to his knees in front of Dante the hunter reached out his arms and tried to touch the kid's shoulders.

"Don't touch me!" Dante yelled, as soon as fingers brushed his shoulder another explosion of energy burst out through the room, breaking things further and sending Nero flying and slamming into the wall outside the open doorway.

Nero had a very high pain tolerance, but something about this power was like acid on his skin, it burned and sizzled, it left a deep cut through his abdomen that he could feel already starting to heal up as he slid down sitting on the ground. "Fu-Fuck..." he coughed out.

"Nero..." a broken voice called out and raising his eyes Nero saw teary blue ones staring back at him, they were afraid but not in the same way Kyrie had been of his arm, this time someone wasn't afraid _of_ him but _for_ him. Afraid to hurt him, which was a first.

"You're bleeding." Dante choked out trying not to sob and pushed himself to his feet through his own pain, "I...I did that...what is wrong with me?" Looking at his hands the teen winced and held his stomach again as the pain grew. "Why can't I make it stop?"

Panicked Dante rushed out the hallway and past Nero, yanking away when fingertips tried to grasp him and pull him back, "Dante wait! Stop!"

Nero heard Dante leave through the front door as he tried to force himself up off the floor, his body was healing but everything felt numb and half paralyzed, a full fifteen minutes of struggling later he could feel everything enough to hobble to his feet. "What the hell..?" What was going on? Is this why Dante had been locking himself away in his room?

He felt like a complete idiot for not noticing, Dante was in his care and he'd been in pain for who knew how long, he probably felt alone and scared when Nero was just up the hall and could have soothed that away.

Pushing through all the tingling his body was sending up his nerves he looked at his devil bringer was blank now, "At least I can track him with this...I just need to get out to the van mn.." he grunted gathering Blue Rose and Red Queen, just in case. If he could feel that demonic energy it meant other demons would as well and they could gather hoping for who knew what.

Like a demon himself Nero sped his clunky van through the city, following the on and off glows of his arm further towards the outskirts until he didn't even need to look at it. He knew exactly what this route was and where it would take him, Dante must have fled to a quiet place he knew and out this way there was only their empty warehouse where they trained together.

He stepped on the gas pedal and skidded to a halt, shoving the handle into park and climbing out so fast that Nero almost tripped. Even from outside he could see a powerful glow of different colors from inside, pulses of red, then blue, then purple and repeating that way. "Dante..." he breathed out and kicked his way through the familiar doorway.

"Who the _fuck_ are you?" Nero snarled when he saw a humanoid demon standing over Dante's prone and curled up form, he drew Red Queen and revved her up several times. "Don't you dare touch him or this is doing straight through your head!"

A weasely laugh escaped the demon but nonetheless he stood a step back from Dante and looked over to Nero, "You may call me Sid, you're the famous demon hunter with the blood of Sparda running through you, aren't you?" Neither of them needed an actual answer to that.

Slowly stepping closer with his sword pointed at the demon every moment Nero eyed Dante, still in pain and not making any movements to run, in fact his eyes looked glossed over and white like he was in some sort of half-trance.

"What have you done to him?"

"That's the wonderful part!" the demon held out his arms and grinned with amusement, "I haven't had to do a single thing to him, everything happening is of his own powers doing. Isn't that interesting? In so many generations there has been little to no demonic heritage showing through until now, there was you with that arm, boring, and then this little one."

"Enough fucking around, tell me everything you know about what's happening and maybe I'll let you live!" Nero cried and thrust his sword at the demon, missing on purpose by a hairs length making the demon scream and scurry away like the wretch he was.

"I-If you remove that pendant from his neck, you'll learn everything you need to know! I swear! I thought you at least were aware but if not then....that pendant is a strong demon repellant."

Nero had never sensed magic or aura from it, nor had the person who used it as payment told him that but it would make sense. If it had been suppressing Dante's powers all of this time as they tried to emerge it could be part or solely the reason why the teen was in so much pain and so uncontrollable.

"Don't fucking move." he warned in a low growl but lowered his sword and moved to Dante, kneeling in front of him and getting no response that the kid knew he was there with him, just a white-eyed stare as Dante's body shook.

A fresh tear slipped down Dante's cheek, with his human hand Nero brushed it away with his thumb, "Hold on Dante, I'm going to fix this. Everything is going to be alright I promise."

Fishing out the pendant from Dante's shirt with his devil arm Nero held it prepared to crush the chain to disconnect it from the teens being, but a hand shot up and gripped his wrist with unimaginable strength and finally the boy's eyes looked at him properly. "Wait!" he said in a voice that definitely wasn't Dante's, but sounded young and hurried.

In the swirling aura that surrounded the teen it began to separate from the purple, blue exiting the red and wrapping around Nero's devil bringer and absorbing into it.

 

 

_"When we were still growing inside of mother before either of us had conscious thoughts of our own our powers had already begun growing inside of us. Then Dante became gravely ill, the doctors expected only I to survive but the unexpected happened and all of my energy, all of my power absorbed into him. It healed him and instead I was the one to perish, at least physically._

_Mother had never been told that part, she was only aware that sickness had taken one of us from her. Still, they were a happy family of three for years and I was allowed to watch that and be with them in a way." the voice rang through Nero's ears like an echo and not through Dante's mouth this time, he saw white and he felt it when his eyes glossed over and a trance overcame him._

_Twins. Dante was one of a pair of twins, the one who had survived birth after uncontrollably absorbing his brother in the womb. It explained why his powers manifested as two different color auras and why they were violent, because the two auras weren't able to contain inside of one vessel as they grew stronger and older. One would always be fighting to strike out and stretch its wings._

_"Dante was only six when mother first hit him, father had accidentally let it slip how I really died and she took her anger out on him before sending father away. We never saw him again. Dante was always kind, he took the anger mother dished out even though he didn't deserve it and I could feel his guilt towards killing me grow as well. I wanted to tell him desperately that I had never blamed him."_

_Nero could feel the presence of this other person, not a complete person and the best way he could describe it was half a consciousness of an aura or ghost. It had a will and some thoughts of its own but not enough fully developed to have an entire personality._

_"You're his...brother then? Is that what you're saying?"_

_"Yes...technically by physical means I was older by five minutes. When mother began to hurt Dante I felt helpless, we were both so weak and I couldn't protect him. So I decided to go to sleep for a long time, I gathered my strength for a long time but I was woken up early to find that Dante was twelve already and mother...mother had committed suicide. And not only that but inside my little brother was growing strong as well and our powers started to fight beyond each of our control, I tried to stop it but that pedant keeps me trapped with how often he wears it." the voice explained leaving Nero speechless. All of this information was being thrown at him that he hadn't expected but also made entire sense looking back at things now._

_Finding a few words Nero's voice was soft, or he tried to make it that way, "You never meant to cause any of this. It's all just a big accident left behind by your parents."_

_"You're not angry at me?" the voice cracked a little breaking Nero's heart along with it._

_"N-No no I'm not...I'm not mad, at least not at you." however much this aura could think on its own, it was still just a fourteen-year-old boy._

_"Thank you, that makes me happy for both me and my brother. He doesn't need me to protect him anymore, he's stronger and when he does need someone...he has you." the voice sounded a little sad but also proud at the same time. "I'm only telling you all of this because I've seen how you two are, how much you care for him and he for you."_

_"More than anything." Nero said gently, "Do you know how I can fix this? How can I make you two stop fighting and the pain go away?"_

_"Yes, I'm storing what I've been working on during all the time I was asleep inside of your arm. Yamato is a special sword, strong and has the power to separate just about anything, it can separate the two of us and I will disappear." the voice said trying to be strong but was laced with a small bit of fear that made Nero want to wrap his arms around the kid like he would Dante and hug him close._

_"Thank you, and I'll make sure to tell him everything so he knows how much you love him."_

 

 

Just like that the white filter over his eyes disappeared as the last of the blue aura soaked into his demonic arm, he could feel the power stored inside of it, it was warm and familiar. Breaking the pendant off of Dante's neck Nero threw it to the side uncaringly which broke whatever trance had also been over Dante.

The blue color came back to his eyes as he looked at Nero but started to breathe hard like he as going to have a panic attack. "Do-Don't...don't touch me I might-I can't control it Nero."

"Shhh, it's okay." he pulled Dante close to his chest with his human arm and nuzzled the top of the kid's white hair. "I'm going to make all of the pain stop." concentrating Nero summoned Yamato with his other hand and felt Dante stiffen seeing that. "This sword is special, it's going to hurt but it won't kill you. Do you trust me Dante?"

Without any hesitance the teen nodded into Nero's shoulder and clung to the man's jacket, "I'm scared." he was shaking hard from the power still raging inside of him and fear when the tip of the katana pressed to his stomach.

"Ready? One...two...three-" In a single quick thrust Nero stabbed the sword in a fluid motion through his young charge, he held Dante still with his other arm feeling the boy cry out in agony and trying to get away from the sharp blade. Pulling it back out in another quick motion the wound began to close up almost right away but blood still leaked out and stained the beautiful blade red as the remaining blue aura in the air began to disappear into nothing, the bit around his devil bringer was soon gone and along with it Yamato turned to dust on the ground.

Holding Dante's shoulders Nero pulled back and moved his hands up to the boy's cheeks, looking him over to see if everything had worked. Dante wasn't hunched over in pain anymore and he even looked relaxed but emotionally overwhelmed. "I'm sorry." Nero said quickly before the other had a chance to say it first.

"I'm so sorry for everything. For all the things your mother did to you, for not noticing how much pain you've been in, for-for fucking stabbing you." a sad chuckle bubbled out of Nero's throat and Dante smiled sadly and laughed as well. "Can you forgive me?"

Tears gathered in Dante's eyes again, this time not of pain but relief and happiness, "Idiot.." he sniffled and let Nero rub his falling tears away, "I love you so much. I jus-just didn't want anything to make you hate me...like mother did." He was too tired to even ask exactly how Nero had learned about that stuff.

"Never think that, when I say I won't leave you I mean it Dante. I'm not going to abandon you for any reason, I love you too kid." A sweet thought came over him and Nero pressed a honeyed kiss to the teen's forehead. "We have a lot to talk about." the hunter's smile began to grow more steady and strong in his features, "But let's go home first."

"Yeah....home, I wanna go home Nero."

As the two embraced one more time and the hunter scooped Dante up playfully making the teen squeak, neither of them noticed the missing presence of a certain weak demon, and the blue pendant.

Back at home they each took a quick shower and as Nero laid in bed looking at the ceiling he sighed, most of his worries had washed away after today and now was the calm after the storm he'd become used to with Dante. Hopefully this one would last and no other misunderstandings would crop up, but he still felt restless like something was missing.

It didn't occur to him what he unconsciously wanted until Dante was peaking into his room and shyly asking, "Can I sleep in here tonight?" The hunter smiled and pulled the covers back inviting his young charge in, who jumped in bed and curled up next to him.

Touching the empty place on his chest where the pendant usually hung Dante moved closer and snuggled into Nero's arm, "His name was Vergil...my brother."

Glancing softly at Dante the man let out a soft but heavy breath, they'd spoken about what happened when they'd been on their way home in the van. Hearing how his brother had always been looking out for him had lifted a weight off of Dante's shoulders very visibly.

"Any time you want to talk about him, or your parents, anything, from now on I want you to tell me. Even if it's in a text and you can't bear to say it out loud, promise me?"

"I promise, I don't have anything else to hide from you. You know about my family, what's been happening to me, I can't think of-oh wait there is one thing." the kid tried to hold in a laugh, "Patty isn't really my girlfriend, we were just pretending."

Snorting loudly Nero put a hand over his eyes as he laughed, "Shit, you kids are going to be the death of me. So you're just friends?"

"Yeah, Patty is really cool even if she drags me to do girly things sometimes." Other than that Dante only had one secret but it wasn't anything he could reveal yet, he needed to wait until he was older to tell Nero his feelings so that they could be taken seriously. That wasn't anything that would hurt them by keeping under wraps.

"I think I'm going to stay single for a while." Nero answered and Dante muttered, "Me too, a long time. Right now I'm just happy to have a friend, and you, living here and doing things together."

Yeah, Nero felt the same. They both needed time to just be happy together again after so much chaos. "Get some rest kid, love you."

"Mn, me too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: That demon fucker is up to something isn't he? Anyways starting next chapter there will be another two-year time skip where the actual romance is going to start blossoming.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dante has been leaving hints for Nero about his feelings since he turned sixteen but so far they've gone unnoticed. Perhaps it's time to step up his game. (In which there is some cute cuddling, a bath scene, and Dante gets to join Nero on a job where some things happen and are let out of the bag)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Towards the end of the chapter there is a small part that seems just a smidge non-con'ish but I assure everyone it's consensual consent and that will be blatantly obvious in the next chapter where they actually discuss what happened.

Two years felt like ample time to hold off on admitting things to Nero, two years of almost complete peace finally. Sure they had a few ups and downs, they would butt heads on occasion but nothing compared to before, it was normal average day arguments that were settled within the day.

Dante had turned sixteen several months ago and since then he'd started to let his thoughts get to him, and his dreams, he'd read online that wet dreams were normal but he still hated having to sneak around and wash his sheets without Nero noticing.

Where part of him had thought this massive crush would go away as he got older and more mature it was the complete opposite and his feelings had grown from a crush to pure affection and recently he'd noticed into love. He was completely in love with Nero.

Since his birthday Patty had decided it was time for the next phase of their 'woo Nero' plan, flirting. She'd been teaching him everything she knew about flirting because she was still the romance master. He'd been putting it into motion slowly ever since, starting slow as she'd advised so that it didn't just shock Nero into a heart attack.

Dante started by giving small compliments, like how Nero's hair looked nice short when the man got it recently cut, telling him that he looked good in a new jacket when he'd gotten one, or even that his cooking had improved. Small things.

Waking up that morning Dante stretched with a yawn and smiled softly to himself, he felt pretty good today, pulling himself out of bed he could hear the clinking of weights being lifted downstairs. Which meant Nero was off in his own world, the easiest time for him to be snuck up on was when he lifted weights waiting for breakfast to cook, it was also the reason why said breakfast was often burnt.

Taking his time the teen brushed his teeth and took a nice shower before getting dressed, his wardrobe used to be just red shirts and jeans but since getting older and having Patty that had expanded slightly. Today he wore some black jeans with a few deliberate rips, a red dress shirt with a black vest over it and a stylish jacket then he clipped his hair up to the side with some of his barrettes like usual. "There, ready for the day."

A devious smirk on his face Dante crept his way downstairs, avoiding every squeaky floorboard and peeking down the stairs, right on time. Nero had finished his morning workout and likely rinsed off in the downstairs bathroom and was now messing with some bacon in a pan.

As silent as a shadow Dante snuck around the kitchen table and saw his opening when Nero set his pan down, the teen lunged and jumped onto Nero's back. Arms around the man's neck as he lifted his legs to keep off the ground, "Morning Nero!"

The hunter gasped, his eyes widening now fully awake, "Shit!" His shoulders relaxed and a smile pulled onto Nero's still sleepy looking features, "You plan on letting go of me anytime soon?"

"Hmmm nope~" he giggled and kept hanging off of Nero's back, "Since you have to work tonight and you won't take me with you _and_ you're missing sparring day I have to bug you while I can."

"Makes perfect sense." he agreed and strong hands reached back, arms now holding Dante up more properly under his ass in a proper piggyback ride. "You're in a good mood this morning, you haven't threatened to throw me off yet."

"You're one to talk, you're all smiles this morning."

Dante released his grip around Nero's neck and shoulders and just leaned his cheek into the man's shoulder. "Nero?"

"Yeah Dante?" with one hand Nero took the bacon off of the stove and flipped the switch to off, it smelled pretty good and well cooked this morning.

"I looooove you!" he said in a silly voice and was promptly let go of, but landed on his feet with great reflexes. "Jerk."

A demonic hand ruffled through his hair, the side that wasn't being held up with the clips, "I love you too kiddo."

"Hey Nero?" he said again a bit more seriously this time. "Yeah kiddo?"

"I...don't really like being called that anymore, just call me Dante alright?" that name had been alright before but now he was determined to prove he was an adult, that he was dating material.

"Oh..yeah sure ki-uh Dante. Sorry might take a bit to get used to not saying it." there, that was done at least and Nero seemed fine enough with it as they sat down for breakfast.

A few hours later Nero had to leave for work, at the door Dante smiled at him, "Demons tonight, right? Be careful and well, call me if you need back up!" Holding up his phone Dante gestured, he'd been wanting Nero to take him on jobs for a while now. He was greatly skilled with pistols and swords and without them overloading on him now even his demonic powers were pretty under wraps.

"Hah, you wish! Like I've said, not until you're eighteen." the hunter grinned, Dante's smile turned into a pout but he shrugged, "Doesn't hurt to try."

When Nero left Dante went ahead to his daily school work, he was acing things perfectly and next year he could even graduate early if he kept up how he was doing. "This stuff is boring, it'd be a lot more fun hunting demons with Nero, wouldn't it Verge?" he said talking to his imaginary brother who wasn't there anymore.

Funny, when he was little all he'd been told was that he had a brother named Vergil and in the womb that he had murdered him, that's why his parents had broken up and that's why his mother hated him. So naturally he had assumed Vergil would have always hated him also. What a surprise to hear that wasn't the case, in fact his brother cared about him so much that whatever was left of him had attached to him and grown along Dante trying to protect him.

Now that the other presence wasn't inside of him Dante could tell the difference, he felt only himself inside and that was nice, but also a little lonely. There was something comforting about knowing his brother had always been on the backburner waiting to tag in to defend him, so not ready to let go of that bond sometimes when he was alone Dante would talk to the air and call it Vergil.

"Do you think Nero could fall in love with me? I...I sure hope so, Patty seems so sure but I'm not always confident about it. I just hope my patience pays off, sometimes I think about him and my heart feels like it's going to burst out of my chest with the way it's beating." Laughing softly to himself he muttered, "Now I sound like one of Patty's cheesy romance shows."

"You just need a chance to show him how much he really can rely on you." Dante told himself, not even sure which he was imitating between Vergil or Patty for a pep talk. "Right, just show him, a chance will come along."

He hadn't been expecting that tonight would be his chance, but when did his life ever throw things at him or Nero easily or with warning?

Dante had taken a nap earlier while bored so he was up late into the night, partially just not sleepy and otherwise waiting for Nero to get home. He'd seen Nero with his fair share of wounds and covered in blood over the years but never as bad as when the hunter got home that night and limped through the door bleeding and ready to collapse. "I'm...home.."

"Nero!" he cried out and rushed to the man's side, maneuvering them so Nero could lean on him and get over to the couch, "What the hell happened to you?"

"I uh, underestimated the kind of demons I was dealing with...weak things but they swarm so fast like a god damn hive of wasps that never end!" he swore and flopped down to the couch and held his stomach where a large gash wasn't healing. "I guess their venom is slowing down my natural healing."

"Idiot then why didn't you drive to the hospital instead of home!?" Dante snapped but ran to the kitchen and dug out a few clean wash clothes and an untouched bottle of alcohol that had been sitting in the top cupboard probably since Dante had moved in here.

"It's not that bad, I'm not going to die but until the venom passes through I'm going to be a weak mess." In his mind Nero justified it that way but deep down he really knew why he'd avoid a hospital, they were expensive. No matter how many jobs he took on they would never be rich and that was okay, he'd rather spend free time with Dante than picking up extra jobs so they could afford super luxuries.

"Says the guy bleeding all over our couch." the teen grumped and started to manhandled Nero, forcing him to sit up and shoving his bloodstained coat off and then taking the hunter's sticky shirt hem and forcing it over the other's head and off. Dante had to remind himself not to ogle the man while he was bleeding and in pain, so he poured a good bit of alcohol over the wound and rolled his eyes when Nero whined like a baby.

"I didn't whine this much that time you shot me in the leg." he scoffed making Nero laugh and tilt his head, "That's because you're way stronger than I am. Besides aren't I allowed to be a whiny baby when someone I care about is taking good care of me?" he then winced and was cut off from saying anything else as Dante pressed the clothes down hard to the largest wound that was healing, but oh so slowly.

"Fuck you're soaked in blood, what exactly were you trying to take out on this job?" Almost head to toe and soaked all the way through his clothes Nero had drying blood on him mixed with sweat, it wasn't a pleasant smell at all.

"Forgot their actual name but they're essentially sized like normal bats but they grow these warts filled with a bloody mucus, that's what this stench is from, it kind of explodes when you're slicing through them. Annnnd apparently the venom in their fangs doesn't paralyze me fully like a normal human, just my healing abilities." he explained and leaned his head back onto the couch and closing his eyes.

After a little while the wound looked much better but still irritated and Nero's movements were still very stiff but Dante couldn't stand it any longer, "You need a bath, you absolutely wreak." pinching his nose the teen got Nero's arm over his shoulder and lifted the man up to his feet with ease.

"It can wait, how do you propose I do it now with my limited mobility?" Making their way slowly and carefully up the steps Nero somehow already knew where this was going.

"I'll help, I can't stand that smell anymore."

Looks like Nero didn't have much of a choice, he was left to sit on the toilet as their bathtub ran filling up with hot water and Dante disappeared for a small while. Nero didn't know it yet but the young man was actually cleaning up the mess downstairs that his guardian had dragged in, scrubbing the blood off the floor with expertise, it wasn't his first time. Getting it off of the couch was more difficult, he did scrub what he could but some of the stains were already setting in so he settled for what he could and then shoved Nero's shirt and heavy leather jacket into a big garbage bag before taking it upstairs to shove anything else bloody into.

"Couch might be ruined." he gave the grave news to the older man as he leaned over the tub to turn off the water, Kneeling down Dante reached eagerly to unzip Nero's pants, a weak grip grabbed one of his wrists, "Hang on I...I can do that myself!" Peering up Dante wanted to smirk at the obvious blush on Nero's cheeks he could see even under the blood splatter, that was a good sign. But he wasn't trying to do anything funny tonight, he just wanted to help.

"Let me help, you can barely keep a hold around my wrist so how do you think you're going to get your pants undone? Just bare with it." He tried his best not to tease Nero further but he may have made the process slower just to watch the teasing discomfort on his guardians face, unable to look at him from embarrassment.

He let Nero keep his boxers on and helped the man get into the tub and settle down, hissing at first when the hot water sizzled against his skin and wounds but quickly settling in to soak. Pulling his own shirt off over his head and then unbuckling his pants.

"Now what are you doing!?" Nero cried and struggled to lift his hands to hold onto the sides of the large tub. Rolling his eyes Dante answered, "Helping you wash your hair and shit, geez can you just calm down and let me help you already?"

Now they matched, just both in their boxers as Dante sat on the back of the bathtub, butt on the edge and feet in the water planted down on each of Nero's sides as he wet the hunter's hair and grabbed the shampoo to start washing. "Sorry if you're embarrassed, we just have no idea how long the paralyzing effect is going to last."

"No...no it's fine, it's odd but...I appreciate the help." Though Nero couldn't see it Dante smiled at the light praise but internally he had a battle going on between his brain, his heart, and his dick. Being so close and warm near Nero, hands in his hand, his bare legs pressed against the hunters toned sides...he was fighting hard to keep himself from getting even the slightest bit hard. He just needed to control himself until he went to bed later, then he could replay this scenario in his mind as much as he wanted.

Dante rinsed out the shampoo, careful not to wash it into Nero's eyes and then leaned forward resting his chin on top of the man's head and loosely hugging his arms around Nero's neck and touching his bare chest. "M'glad you came home okay."

To his surprise there was no tension in Nero's body language from the touch or move to try and put space between them, nothing of the sort. "Of course I did, when have I ever not come home?"

"That's not the point, I know you're strong and reliable, and you have strong and reliable friends like Lady and Trish...but what if one day that isn't enough?" That's one reason he wanted so badly to go with Nero on jobs, so they could protect each other and if they couldn't fight off the threat, then at least he could die trying. "Let me come with you to finish your job, I'll stay in the van and just shoot from the window or something...Please?"

Nero sighed, it was always hard to say no to Dante when the teen was so upfront and honest. "Fine, but you really aren't allowed to leave the van and if I tell you to drive away you do it, understand?" Dante hadn't actually gotten his license yet but he was getting better at driving. Maybe he'd try for the license soon enough, it just didn't feel that necessary when he didn't have his own car and Nero always had the van or needed it to in case of sudden jobs.

"Understood." he agreed happily and grabbed some soap and a rag to start gently washing dried blood off of the back of Nero's neck, shoulders, back, until he was clean. Sloshing around a bit Dante moved into an awkward position sitting in the tub on top of Nero's already numb legs to wash the man's front, neither of them could make eye contact during the duration but his hands never went further down than Nero's belly button.

"Somehow this was the only clean part of you." Dante chuckled breaking the silence and lifting up Nero's demonic hand and running his thumbs over the rough ridges, it didn't glow for Dante anymore and neither of them knew if it had just gotten used to Dante's demonic energy signature or if Nero was subconsciously suppressing it so that it wouldn't glow all of the time.

"I think...yeah I think I've got enough feeling back to finish up myself Dante, thanks for the help."

"Yeah okay, yell if you need help though alright?" the teen shrugged and got out of the bath, drying off and closing up his large trash bag of bloody clothes. Mentally he tried to make a note to scrub the tub tomorrow, the water in the bath was pretty red now from soaking Nero and it would probably stick after draining.

"Think we can wash the blood out of this?"

Nero was the one to sigh this time, "No, it's pretty stained, I'm surprised the blood scrubbed off my skin so easily. May as well just toss all of that, we'll replace it....and the couch at some point."

"You got it." Heaving up the bag Dante, just in his boxers, went out front of the Devil May Cry to rid them of the bag in the large trash can. It didn't take Nero too long to get himself finished up to Dante's full surprise, not fifteen minutes later did the man come downstairs dry and in fresh comfortable clothes much like what Dante had put on and then proceeded to sit on the couch and prop his feet up onto the coffee table.

When Nero took a seat near him Dante pulled his feet up to the couch and scooted closer so that their arms were touching, he tossed the remote into Nero's lap. "I don't care what we watch, change it to whatever even that crime channel you think is interesting." Yawning loudly the teen curled up in that spot and cuddled into Nero's side then closed his eyes.

This was way more comfortable than any bed to him, he was happiest just curled on the couch with Nero, even happier when an arm moved so he could move in closer and curled around his back to keep him there, and the faint sound of bad tv going in the background of his thoughts. _I really love you..._ he thought as his mind drifted into a happy but numb sleep.

As he'd gotten older Dante's insomnia had died down but it still plagued him some nights and his sleeping much like Nero's could be light as a feather if his enhanced senses woke him to something strange in the building.

He awoke in the middle of being carried to his room, careful and as slow as Nero had been to not wake him Dante yawned and his eyes fluttered on their way up the steps, "Mn?" His blue eyes slid back closed right away, in the dark he hadn't gotten a good look at who was carrying him but it was obvious, and there was no mistaking the feel of Nero's devil bringer holding onto his shoulder.

Smiling tiredly he was tucked lazily into bed with just a sheet over him that the teen pulled close and curled up into, "Night Nero.."

"G'night Dante." said a hushed voice and then the click of his door being shut.

 

 

Dante woke up the next morning to take a quickie shower and get dressed, then made breakfast himself as Nero was just coming down the steps to do his morning work out. "You're up early, were you up all night again?" Nero asked with slight worry.

"No, I'm excited!" he exclaimed as he almost furiously slapped down another perfect got and steamy strawberry pancake onto a plate and set the stack in front of Nero at the table. "Excited, for what? You and Patty doing something today?"

"Nero." Dante whined, "You promised to take me on your job today, I'm not letting you back out."

Remembering he had promised that washed over the hunter's features, "Right..." he was still hesitant over it but he wasn't about to go back on his word either. "Staying in the van, remember?"

"Yessss I remember!" Dante scarfed his breakfast down and just as viciously washed the dishes, "I'm ready!" he declared, shoes on, guns on his hips and looking proud as hell.

The long drive left plenty of time for him to cool down and deflate, boredly leaning his head against the window and looking out at the trees passing by. Apparently Nero had been hired by a farmer because they drove up to a large farm in the middle of nowhere and it was briefly explained to him that some rift from Hell had opened in the owner's barn which was where the bats had been spawning.

The gate had been cut off before Nero left, locking the weak but annoying demons inside so today all he had to do was finish cleaning up his mess and try not to get soaked in their blood or poisoned once again.

As promised Dante stayed in the van, positioning it far enough away but close enough to shoot from the passenger side window. It was going to be his job to watch the doors and fire at any of the demons if they tried to escape, just the thought of killing a demon got Dante's blood pumping.

As did watching Nero put on his work face, serious face with furrowed eyebrows as he approached the barn with a confident step and revving up his Red Queen ready for the fight.

Nero was professional and pretty good at not letting anything escape but at one point the barn doors were pushed open just enough that a few of the creatures flew out, Dante had been ready and shot them with perfect headshots. "Fuckers.." he hissed to himself as he reloaded just to be ready.

He could hear the hack and slash of Nero cutting through demons, gunfire rang out, screeches from demons, but then Dante's body shivered. He felt something _wrong_ from the barn as it exploded with a hot red light, not like his aura but something more sinister before he heard Nero cry out in pain. "Nero!"

Just like that he decided to fuck his promise, rushing out of the van and to the barn, pushing his way in through the large doors. The place was covered in demon blood and bodies, but at least the bodies were starting to fizzle away leaving almost no trace of their existence.

What was worrying was the gate to hell that had ripped straight back open, freeing a new swarm of bat demons flying around the upper part of the barn before it sewed closed and disappeared. "Shit!" the teen hissed and ducked into cover in one of the empty animal stalls and began firing, but there were just so many, and where had Nero gone? "Nero!" he called loudly as his heart thumped hard in his chest.

Another light filled the barn, this time a bright blue one and there was a loud cry from a demon as it jumped out from behind some bails of hay and into the air. It was a much larger demon than the bats and colored mostly blue but had a somewhat humanoid form to it and the way it slaughtered the bat swarm in just a few swipes of power told Dante all he needed to know, he couldn't beat that thing.

Had that thing...had it killed Nero? He might be laying around here somewhere injured or dying, and that was all the thought Dante needed to peek out from his stall and fire a few well-placed bullets in the creature's skin. They sunk in but barely affected it at all and healed almost instantly but unfortunately caught the blue demon's attention as it snarled and whipped its head around and stalked over to where Dante was trying to hide.

_Shit shit shit!_ he swore mentally as his shaky hands tried to reload his guns before bright blue claws snatched his wrists and literally picked him off the ground and threw him across the barn. Gaining his baring as quick as he could, though having lost his guns somewhere in the middle of being flung he scanned the ground.

One gun glinted into the side and the young man made a dive for it to no avail, the demon was on him in milliseconds and grabbing his arms and shoving him into the nearest barn wall as Dante cried out. "Ah!" The demon held him there but seemed torn as it stared through him.

Only then was Dante able to see and feel it, the presence of this demon felt so familiar and despite the situation, non-threatening, and its hands looked just like a certain someone's devil bringer. Taking a wild guess Dante muttered out, "N...Nero?"

That snapped the demon with recognition finally and the demonic form slowly faded leaving Nero looking as he normally did in a human form and breathing hard as the demonic glow faded from his piercing eyes. "Dante...?"

"Nero what was-oh!" he was pulled into a tight hug that Dante didn't dare fight, "What was that just now?"

"I ha-have no idea that's never happened before, I was a demon and I-shit I felt so powerful." The hug was almost crushing, some of the demonic power still hadn't left Nero's veins quite yet it seemed and his body was jittery and not used to whatever that just was. That and after a moment Dante felt something warm poking into him, being noticed Nero pretty much shoved himself away, "Shit sorry, I don't know what's wrong with me right now!"

Reaching for Nero's shoulders the teen turned them and pushed his guardian gently to lean back against the barn wall, a hazy and lust filled look filling his eyes. "It's fine...let me help."

"Help-Dante? Wha-?"

"Shh." Dante said crowding in close and starting to undo Nero's pants without looking the man in the eyes, afraid he might see judgment or rejection there. Instead he focused on getting the pants undone, he should have no problem seeing as he'd just done it last night before getting Nero into the bath but today his hands were shaky and nervous thinking about what he was going to be doing in a moment.

To his surprise Nero was quiet even as his pants were tugged to the ground and Dante knelt in front of him, and then the cold air hit his erection when his boxers were pulled down. "You don't have to- _fuck_..." Nero swore and was cut off when a warm mouth took in the head of his cock and started out slow and sucking the tip gently.

Dante had ideas on how to do this but no experience, he was just hoping that enthusiasm might make up for that. To his luck it would, that and the fact that Nero was so pent up from no sex in a long time and his devil trigger having left him horny as hell.

Pushing too fast Dante tried to take in much more but gagged as the large cock was too much and was forced to pull back to a more minimal amount, sucking gently and trying to keep any of his teeth from brushing the sensitive skin. He had one hand planted firmly on the ground and the other started working on pumping Nero's erection, whatever he couldn't get into his mouth he stroked just like he would when touching himself.

A soft moan escaped Nero's lips and Dante couldn't help but glance up at the man. Part of him was irritated that the hunter had his eyes closed and not looking at him, but as soon as the man did briefly glance down at him Dante wished he hadn't, his own eyes flickering away and looking back at what he was doing.

It didn't taste nearly as bad as he'd expected it to thankfully and he was able to take in a little more, starting to bob his head along the length as he sucked. A human hand reaching and curling loosely into the back of his hair, encouraging the movement as another soft guttural noise went straight to Dante's own groin.

It was fast and neither of them expected it but Nero felt his toes curl and the only warning he gave was a grunt as his sticky fluid flooded Dante's mouth who did his best to take it all in but pulling back he couldn't stop himself from spitting it to the side and using his shirt sleeve to wipe his mouth. It was really bitter and he'd always been more fond of sweet things so it was hard to swallow. "Uck.."

They were both breathing hard and neither of them moved for a long minute or two until Nero pulled his pants up with shame heavy in his eyes. "Get in the van Dante." were his first words, leaving the teen with wide eyes and a growing pit of anxiety in his stomach. "But Nero I-"

"Get in the van. Now."

After retrieving his guns from the ground the ride home in the van was completely silent.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nero wasn't going to let this split them apart after all he'd done to keep them close together. No, they were going to talk this out and not let it fester.  
> \----  
> aka feelings are shared, there are kisses, touches, fluff, and a strange new figure appears at the end. Is he friend, or foe?

Nero could honestly say he'd never felt so happy and at home in his life, for the first time home actually felt like _home_. Before there had always been something, no matter how small, pushing him and Dante apart but with nothing there anymore they were closer than ever.

Training together a few times a week was amazing, Dante just kept getting stronger and stronger. Now at his young age he was better than Nero with guns, not to mention how he'd taken up using two at a time and was equally as skilled with both hands, and he could almost match Nero's skill with a sword. He was also pretty great at hand to hand combat, both hands, and feet but was learning and it wasn't his strongest skill, they'd put that on hold to keep practicing with demonic powers.

Nero needed that as well, his devil bringer could do a lot of things but having an extra pair of eyes to watch from afar was nice and handy. Dante's powers so far, as strong as the hunter could feel them still even without Vergil's presence anymore, seemed to be limited to kicking in and making the teen faster and stronger for periods of time.

Dante felt strong and like he could take on the world, and that's why he'd been constantly nagging Nero to take him on a job as backup, he'd held off thus far. Nero wasn't sure if the teen was trying to suck up to him or had just started maturing out of nowhere but Dante had been giving him compliments and wordlessly doing house chores like there was no tomorrow.

It was cute, sometimes Nero felt like he had a little housewife until Dante started swearing like a sailor, hell even that was cute at times he'd admit. Coming home and being able to call out _I'm home_ and hear a _You're late!_ tugged right at the man's heartstrings. He'd never had this, a home with a family that meant everything to him as this did.

Maybe it was a selfish thought but Nero wanted to stay like this forever, he was sure one day Dante would strike out on his own to explore the world or moving out to live with someone he loved.

Nero hated thinking about that, if Dante found someone he loved and wanted to leave, it irritated him just like back when the kid had been fake dating Patty.

 

 

The job wasn't supposed to be difficult, clear out a farmer's barn of demons and close the hell gate that had opened inside of it, that was one of the many handy things his devil bringer could do. Though it was difficult and Nero didn't think it was really supposed to be used for it, likely it'd be easier for him to open a gate than close it, but hey he had a job to do.

He'd successfully closed the gate and slaughtered most of the demon, gotten half paralyzed in the process, and slunk himself home only to be manhandled into the bath by his young charge.

God those hands felt good in his hair and on his skin, hopefully Dante hadn't noticed when he shuddered and relaxed into the touch and closed his eyes letting himself sink into it fully. It took literally all of his willpower to keep himself from growing hard in that moment, it should have felt wrong to be getting this way from thinking about Dante, but it didn't. Nero was surprised at how _not_ wrong it felt, though he couldn't get himself to think of it as feeling right either.

So as for that next day there was no way Nero would have thought the most surprising thing to happen to him was not triggering into a fully demonic form and unleashing a crazy amount of power, but that afterward Dante had gotten on his knees and....yeah. That had happened, and there wasn't an ounce of Nero who had hated it.

"Get in the van. Now." he'd ordered and slammed the door on the driver's side, the ride home was silent. A few times he felt Dante's eyes glance at him but he never looked back in case it sparked conversation, he was still processing everything that had just happened. He had no idea he could turn into something so demonic but other than the new power coursing through his veins Nero had felt just himself.

Not being used to it the power had made him feel crazy for a time but he knew if he earned to use that same power Nero would have no trouble being himself in that form, it wouldn't risk any innocents nearby.

He thought about the power for about half the trip and decided on calling it his Devil Trigger and for the rest of the trip he started compartmentalizing his feelings on Dante giving him a blowjob in that barn, his face with unchanging emotion on the outside despite the ever changing going on internally.

At first Dante had tried to give off that pouting look that meant he didn't feel any guilt over what he'd done, and he obviously didn't feel guilty for it that wasn't too surprising. But after a while in the silence Nero noticed a worry gleaming in his eyes, he was probably worried about how mad Nero was at him for doing that. Shit, he'd never expected he would have to handle a situation like this.

Dante rushed through the doors of the Devil May Cry first and they both kicked their shoes off, but before the teen could make any escape attempt Nero caught him by the shoulder and started leading him over sternly to the couch and pushed him to sit down. "We need to talk about this."

Standing in front of the couch finally their eyes met, Dante's were big and soft with a tinge of sadness as he twiddled with his thumbs in his lap, having discarded his guns on the coffee table. "I'm sorry if you didn't like it and I won't do it again if you hated it, but I don't regret it otherwise! I-!..." Dante swallowed hard and grew a harder look in his eyes, "I've liked you for so long I couldn't help myself! Ever since I was fourteen these feelings have been-ugh it's suffocating!" the teen tried to smile and laugh all of this off.

With a loud sigh Nero rubbed his fingers over his eyes, "You...are an idiot."

"What?" Dante's voice broke and his split second forced confidence was gone, replaced with quick filling tears.

_Shit shit shit!_ that wasn't what he'd meant at all by that, sliding quickly into the adjacent cushion to the young man Nero took Dante's chin with his fingers and pressed their lips together softly. Chaste and warm, blue eyes blinked their tears back and fell half-lidded before they broke apart. "You're an idiot, because you should have let me kiss you first before...all of that."

"I uh....sorry." Dante said in a hushed voice when Nero's hand fell away from his chin but then scooted himself closer and lifting his own hand to the hunter's neck so he could lean and press their lips back together. This time Nero smiled into the kiss as he pressed back lightly at first but applied more pressure and deepening the kiss as he suddenly scooped up Dante's legs onto the couch and pushed the teen to lay back, not breaking the kiss.

"Mn." Dante groaned a soft noise and smoothly pushed his hand that had been on Nero's neck over the man's shoulder to rest on his back and hold loosely into the back of Nero's shirt. "You're so cute like this...how can I possibly keep my hands to myself?" he muttered against the other's lips.

For once Dante had no smartass remark, just a happy and soft expression dusted with a red blush and melting into every single thing Nero did or said to him, completely pliable. Pressing another short kiss to the teen's eager mouth one of Nero's hands started at the top of Dante's chest and touched its way down to the blatant tent forming near where his knee was pressed between the teen's legs.

Rubbing the palm of his hand over Dante let out a small gasp and whine, his fist in the back of Nero's shirt clenched. "Nero...pl-please!"

He'd be lying if Nero said he'd never thought about doing these sorts of things with Dante, but he'd always shot them down quickly and pushed them deep into the back of his mind knowing it wasn't something he should ever let himself morally take advantage of the teen over. That will of his shattered pretty quickly once it was obvious how much Dante wanted this as well. For now it was too late to back out, they could sort it out later.

Later happened to come pretty quickly, after getting a hand firmly around Dante and touching him quickly everything was over. Dante had bitten his lip to hold in a squeal and squirmed as he was touched, not lasting long until he was cumming against his stomach and into Nero's hand.

Sated and panting Dante's grip on Nero's back softened and slowly slipped off and down to the couch. "Nero were...do you mean it? That you like me too?"

Nero knew he should lie, he should definitely lie and stop this before it went any further! But...why, why should he do that? Life had never been fair to him, never given him what he wanted, he'd worked his ass off for every single thing that he had other than Dante. That had just fallen in his lap and something between them had blossomed.

Hell he was part demon that alone was excuse enough. He should just let them have this one thing, this tenderness between them and let it grow to see where it went. Besides as Dante's blue eyes gazed up at him so desperately it was nearly impossible to say no.

"I do." that was all it took and Dante smiled and he whined when Nero sat up onto the couch, separating their closeness. The teen sat up quickly and scrambled himself right into Nero's lap, "You don't seem all that happy about it, I'm happy, you should well...probably be happy about this?"

"I am, promise." he responded and curled an arm around Dante's front with his hand running through the teens white hair, leaning his forehead against the side of his ward's head. "You're just so much younger than me, I don't want to push you or do things too quickly."

"I'm fine with doing things slowly." Dante said back, "I want things but I know I am a kid to you, I want to prove myself in any way that I can."

Nero shook his head gently, "Don't force yourself to grow up too quickly, I know what that's like and it isn't fun." Pressing a kiss to Dante's temple Nero pulled back, "Go take a shower, I can wait."

Pushing himself up Dante didn't bother straightening his clothes and stopped a few steps away to look back at Nero. "You could always join m-oof!" he flinched as a pillow hit him straight in the face and they both started laughing. "Okay jerk you could have just said no!"

"And you need to learn to keep it in your pants!" Nero called back as the teen faded from view up the stairs.

 

 

That very next morning they were both sitting at the kitchen table munching loudly on cereal, they'd both been very lazy and neither wanting to attempt much else than cereal and milk in a couple of bowls. "Ground rules." Nero announced.

"Hm?" Dante grunted back in question with his mouth full.

"We need to set some ground rules since you're underage." the older used his devil arm casually using it to point at Dante accusingly, "If we don't then you're going to get the better of me, I know that much."

The younger rolled his eyes but said nothing before swallowing and shoving more cereal into his mouth, using his hand to gesture for Nero to keep going, he was listening.

"No sex until after you hit eighteen." that one was a given, "Same with kissing in public, not until you're older, but as much as you like at home, and I'm happy to touch you too. You can um..touch me too if you want but you really don't have to." Nero couldn't help the small flush spreading over his face, he wasn't good at talking about this stuff, it was uncomfortable.

Swallowing hard around his dry throat he added, "Last thing, I won't um...be angry if you experiment with other people you know? You're young and you should be able to find out what you like with who you like, I know you and Patty are close."

"Patty and I are friends." Dante said back sternly with a slight frown, "I know what I like, you. Does this mean you're going to be off fooling around with others?"

"No, no I'm happy to stay exclusive to you as much as you want to give or not give to me. I'm just giving you permission to-" Nero stopped when a gentle hand touched over his demonic one and curled their fingers together across the small table.

Dante rolled his blue eyes again, "Then no big deal, I have you and you have me." he started to smile warmly and scooped another spoonful of cereal into his mouth, crunching loudly as his smile practically sparkled. "I'm happy like this."

Just hearing that squeezed Nero's heart in just the right way, it made him so embarrassed like a girl in a romance novel, embarrassed enough he wanted to hide and cover his blushing face. "I'm happy too."

They went back to their semi-normal life after that, their normal after all involved the occasional demon incident, bickering, but now a lot of kissing and cuddling on the couch after said bickering about useless shit.

There had been one night only a few evenings after their confessions that Nero had wandered out of the bathroom upstairs and stopped dead in his tracks, Dante was on the phone with who he could guess was Patty.

"Yeah...yeah I told him, well I mean I told him _after_ some things happened." the teen was sitting on the couch, phone to his ear, and a hand covering his face with pure embarrassment. "Basically yes, _hey_ don't call me a horny slut!" he whined.

Nero snorted, he really wished he could hear the other end of the conversation, Patty had always been one of a kind.

A bright smile pulled over Dante's face as he said with affection, "Couldn't have done it without you, you're the best...most of the time. Hey I get to be best at least ten percent of the time, that's only fair!" the two teens giggled over the phone.

 

 

Over the next few months Nero accelerated their training, getting a bit harsher on Dante, not that the other seemed to mind the challenge as he was keeping up well and thriving under the pressure. That and well, it was helping them keep their sexual urges under wraps, they'd touched each other a few times here and there, they kissed plenty, but there was always an urge for more.

Today Nero was a bit embarrassed but proud, to say that Dante had kicked his ass at sword fighting. Nero propped his Red Queen sword up against the wall and watched as Dante panted and smirked, "I'm starting to think I really do have more demon blood in me than you do." he teased.

"Yeah but I know you're still jealous of this bad boy." Nero teased back and held up his demonic arm.

"You got me there, it's amazingly badass and pretty hot, but I think it suits you better than me." Dante flirted making Nero shake his head and affectionately smile at the other. Hearing that the rain of the afternoon had only started pouring down harder rather than lightening up he gestured to the door, "Go cool off out there, I see that look in your eyes."

"No idea what you're talking about Nero!" Dante called but put his sword up next to Nero's and headed outside into the cool raindrops.

"What have I gotten myself into with this brat?" Nero muttered to himself with a loving smile and tone in his voice. Running his demon arm through his hair it almost blinded him when suddenly it glowed brightly and the feeling of demon energy in the air was heavy, a new strong kind that didn't feel like Dante's in the least.

"Dante!" he yelled, grabbed Red Queen and rushed after the teen out the door. As the cold rain pelted his skin and eyes abruptly he didn't hesitate to rev his sword up watching a tall humanoid figure standing in front of Dante.

He was a demon, no doubt about it, but he looked mostly human with jet black hair swooped to the side and grown long, matching fanciful outfit and fit figure. "Amazing, you look just like him.." the demon smiled nonchalantly, though he must have noticed Nero's presence by now.

"Except..." the demon even fucking _giggled_ as he touched Dante's cheek and then lifted his hand to the barrette's keeping the teen's hair out of his eyes that he wore often. "These are different of course, but you still look just like Sparda. My apologies." he pulled back and turned to look at Nero then, who was seething with a glowing devil bringer clenching and unclenching ready to attack but eyeing Dante first to see if he was alright.

A bit shaken at the sudden appearance of a strong demon Dante hadn't been sure what to do but he looked unharmed and just soaked and cooled off to the bone with rain. "Nero.." he said softly, "I'm fine."

"Who the _fuck_ are you?" the hunter snarled at his new prey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, I'm so very sorry that this chapter took so long. I've actually had 75% written since I posted chapter 8. Some...things, happened in the last month that shook my life hard and I wasn't able to write mentally. This is a little of me venting so if you don't want TMI feel free to ignore this.(Which is why I've placed it at the end of the chapter and easier to ignore than the beginning)
> 
>  
> 
> A very close friend of mine took his own life last month so along with the funeral I've been grieving, helping his roommate(my brother) move, and keeping an eye on the other two friends of our tight-knit group to make sure they've been doing okay. Things are just now sort of starting to feel back to normal so I hope to be getting back into the swing of writing regular chapters of this until it's finished. Apologies for the delay, for too much information about me, and if the last pieces of this chapter seem rushed or weird compared to the rest since I wrote them recently. 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading and letting me vent a bit. Everyone please remember to take care of yourselves.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The new demon explains his intentions, something about an angry brother with bloodlust for Sparda blood? But maybe just somehow he isn't the brother Nero and Dante need to be worried about.

"Who the _fuck_ are you?" the hunter sniped with venom. "And get away from him _now_."

The demon put his hands up, he held no weapon but Nero could feel the power radiating off of him like the creature had no care in the world. Shooting Dante a carefree smile again the dark haired demon stepped away several feet thinking that was enough, he was poorly mistaken if he thought he was safe.

Since first triggering it Nero had been practicing commanding his devil trigger, it tried to let itself out when he became overly angry which didn't happen too often but when it did the power was hard to control. Now he had a little taste of what Dante had gone through with all of that power coursing through his veins long ago, Nero wished he'd known sooner so he could have understood Dante earlier.

Right now he was holding in the trigger as much as possible and the only thing Nero could do to keep it in check was to satisfy it, by releasing his devil bringer claw straight into the demon crashing the bastard into the concrete and catching him off guard.

"Nero!" a voice snapped the hunter's attention as he'd just been ready to surge forward with his sword and strike it straight through the demon's chest. Instead there were warm hands pressing at his chest and blue eyes begging him to calm down, Nero tried to take in a few breathes and focus on the pink barrette's in Dante's hair, think about anything other than letting his demonic instinct release itself.

"I know, I know just...he was touching you and-" Nero grit out as he took in breathes and forced his hand to relax against Blue Rose's hilt.

"Hey it's okay, I know." Dante smiled at him and suddenly it felt like all of his anger was so much easier to deal with, a lighter load than before. "He didn't do anything, I think he just wanted to talk." the younger touched Nero's glowing arm and ran his fingers over it gently.

"I was." came the deep voice as the demon stood and brushed himself off from the rubble that had clung to his dark clothing but wiped away easily with the rain, which was now starting to lighten its fall. "My name is Moddeus. It's a pleasure." he said with a flat tone as his eyes locked with Nero's.

"Likewise." Nero said back in the same manner. "What do you want?" he cut set straight to the point.

"I'd heard rumors in the underworld down a grapevine that there may have been a descendant of Sparda born who resembled him in appearance and power. I came to see for myself if it was something to worry about." Moddeus explained, "I see the rumors are true."

"And that's a problem?" asked the hunter with a warning undertone heavy on his tongue.

Seeing how what he'd said might have come across as a threat Moddeus put his hands back up as he had before, "Not a problem to me, but to certain beings of the underworld yes. Mostly I was worried about my brother, Baul. Why don't we talk somewhere a little warmer and less soaked?" the demon suggested and glanced up at the dark clouds above that grumbled angrily like they were ready to start downpouring again soon.

"If he found us here he can easily find the store." Nero answered quietly when Dante gave him an unsure glance. "Let's get home and warmed up, then we can hear him out."

"Lovely. You're much more agreeable when you aren't seething with anger and power."

Once in the van, with the tall demon cramped in the back with equipment the two hunters relaxed just a smidge and looked at each other as Nero drove them back towards the inner city towards the Devil May Cry. "By the way, you were fantastic today at training. If you really have that much Sparda blood in you...then you're going to be way more powerful than I could ever try to be."

"It's true." their guest piped up from the back, "With even half of Sparda's power you could rule the underworld with how divided it is nowadays."

Dante shrugged, "I'm not really interested in any of that, I just want to be left alone so I can live here with Nero."

"That's all you aspire for? I nice cozy home with a family?" Moddeus blinked his dark eyes slowly as he peeked around the equipment to look up at the teen. Slowly a new smile crept over his face, "Then you're even more like Sparda than I would have thought, that was all he wanted towards the end of his life as well."

Nero was quiet then from his side of the van, concentrating on the road as his thoughts wandered. He'd only just gotten a taste of higher power than he was used to and it already felt addicting, Nero wanted more and even more. Dante had lived with a huge power for months when he was younger, he had that taste and now he was saying he'd give all of that up just to live in their little crap of a store that was half run down just to stay with Nero.

It was a warming thought for the hunter, but he was also jealous of Dante's resolve.

Once back home they all shed their soaking coats and boots and Dante ran off to gather some big towels to bring back and dry off with, after wiping his clothes off the teen had used what was left dry of his towel to rub down Nero's back.

"Hah thanks." he muttered, a smirk pulled at his lips as he swung around and dropped his own towel over Dante's white hair and playfully began to ruffle it dry. "Hey!" the younger complained and flailed his arms around to get away but wasn't really trying.

A deep laugh made Nero snap his gaze over at Moddeus and a new frown replaced Nero's smirk. "Let's have a seat and talk, get this over with." At the table Nero made sure that Dante sat next to him with Moddeus across the table from them both, just so he could watch them both over a bit easier.

"So as I said the underworld is in a bit of a tizzy over the possibility of someone taking Sparda's place, at least those demons who have heard about this. To my awareness not many know but it's only a matter of time before it spreads further and further." the devil explained. "My brother and I long ago were apprentices to the great Sparda, we believed in him and I still do."

"But your brother doesn't?" Nero asked.

"He did, for a long time, he believed Sparda wasn't dead and that he would return one day. Centuries passed and last I saw him he'd finally given up and now with this news about Dante I am positive he will come here to see for himself. Though I'm not sure to what end."

"In other words you aren't sure if he'll want to worship me or kill me?"

"That..." Moddeus' eyes softened, "..is correct. Knowing my brother I think he will want a fight, to the death likely. That's the best way he knows to prove himself or have others prove themselves to him."

It was obvious there wouldn't be any real reasoning with this demon when he arrived if even his brother was unsure of his future actions.

"I'll talk to him first." Dante announced and folded his fingers together on the cold table. "And if he won't listen to what I have to say I'll fight him."

"No!!" both Nero and Moddeus exclaimed almost in unison before the hunter spoke up first, "You're a great fighter for your age, almost on par with me but there's no way you can fight a demon trained by Sparda!"

"So you're going to in my stead?" Dante asked sternly, "Train me harder until he shows up if Mr. Moddeus here is feeling generous maybe he can give me some pointers as well." blue eyes looked at the dark haired demon expectantly. "I'd assume you didn't just come here to tell me this stuff without actually doing something about it?"

"You're correct Dante, I would prefer you able to live your life free of Sparda's weight as much as possible, I know that's what my master would have wanted." he nodded. "Nero, please give me permission to take over Dante's sword training for the foreseeable future, I know my brother's style so I can prepare him."

"I..." looking between them Nero let out a frustrated sigh, "How can I say no when I'm outnumbered..? I can't promise I won't try to step in, but you can train together if you'd like."

"Thanks Nero." a warm hand touched the hunter's arm.

"I'll leave you two for the evening then and return tomorrow for our first training session. Good evening gentlemen." the demon bid good night and let himself out.

Both of them watched him leave silently before turning to look at each other. Dante opened his mouth to say something, at least tried to before Nero's hands were gripping his face and their lips were crashing together.

The younger let out a heavy groan as his hands moved to grip Nero's wrists for support to lean himself up to kiss back. "Ahn, _Nero_."

Their lips worked against each other as their tongues wrapped around one another eagerly until they broke apart to breath. "I'm um, shit I'm sorry I shouldn't act so possessive or grab you like-mn!" a kiss cut him off as Dante leaned up to silence him.

"I liked it." the teen breathed out with a new glimpse of lust in his eyes. Sliding his hands up Nero's wrists to his elbows and abandoned that to search down the hunter's chest through his still damp clothing until they rested much lower and pulled Nero's zipper and buttons open on his pants. "Nero please.."

" _Shit_." the older hissed back and yanked Dante in for another heated but brief kiss before swinging an arm underneath the teen and sweeping him off of his feet. Arms securely wrapped around his neck and shoulders and legs clung to his sides. "Let's get these wet clothes off." he muttered before bringing them upstairs to Nero's room.

"Nero." came a whimper and the hunter could feel the teen's erection pressing against his stomach as he carried Dante upstairs and dumped him all over the top of the bed. Tearing his wet shirt off he stood at the edge of the bed and leaned over Dante, helping to pull off his shirt as well before practically tearing the rest of their clothes off.

After he'd kicked his own pants and socks off Nero turned his eyes back to Dante who had curled under the warm bed covers, face beat red and needy but full of embarrassment. They'd never been completely naked like this before and this was finally the moment that showed their age difference and experience, Nero didn't feel too much fret from being naked.

He knew he was fit and must be pleasing to Dante if the teen could get so hard so fast but here the other was all curled up and hiding away shyly. Sneaking into the other side of the bed the hunter couldn't help but to smugly smile, "Change your mind? It's fine if you did."

"No!" Dante quipped in fast and shoved Nero to lay fully flat and moved them so that he was straddling Nero's waist, their cocks resting next to each other and their cooled skin pressed together like this for the first time. It sent a visible shiver through Dante's spine as he adjusted the bed covers to hide their lower bodies, they could feel everything but Nero couldn't really see it anymore.

_So cute_ Nero thought as he slid his hands under to find and grasp Dante's hips to pull and shift him a bit more comfortably. "Is this...okay?" the younger asked softly as he clenched the bed sheets tight around them keeping the show curtained from Nero's gaze.

"Of course Dante, here let me show you how just fine this is." he offered and with one hand gripped both of their hard cocks against each other and slowly began to pump them in rhythm. Slowly relaxing his grip on the sheets Dante shivered and his eyes went half-lidded as his attention went to focusing on elsewhere. "Fuck.."

"Not going to last very long today are you?" Nero teased, never looking away from the look on Dante's face. The way he looked while in pleasure was something else, provoking him into speeding his hand up and not even mentioning the way Dante was rocking into him unconsciously.

"Sh-shut up..." Dante bit his lip and finally let go of the sheets as he moaned softly and leaned forward, planting his hands instead onto Nero's shoulders. "Nero...Nero I'm gonna..."

As usual the inexperienced one came first and in this position he slumped over completely into Nero panting and clinging to him. The hunter planted a soft kiss to the other's temple, "You get some sleep, I'm going to take a shower."

Dante groaned as he was adjusted to the side and lazily reached out, missing Nero completely. "But you didn't..." he looked so sleepy already but knew it was pretty rude bedside manner to leave someone unsatisfied.

"Eh I'll finish in the shower, you gave me plenty to replay in my head so don't worry." Nero tapped his head as a gesture and smirked at Dante before disappearing into his bathroom.

 

 

Although he was hesitant at first and sat in on the first few sessions, Moddeus was a pretty damn good teacher when it came to swords. He had a completely different style than what Nero used so not only was Dante picking that up quickly but Nero was mentally taking notes.

After a week of making sure he could go to the lessons with Dante the hunter finally had to get back to working whenever he could take jobs, they had a home to maintain and bills to pay after all.

Dante would do his school work in the morning, they would spend time together and eat whenever Nero was around between work, and then the teen would disappear in the early evening only to return late when it was getting dark. He was always completely exhausted but there was never a wound on him, he would shower, munch on something, and promptly pass out in one room or another.

Now that Nero thought about it, it had been a while since Dante's insomnia had been a serious problem. It still occurred on the odd nights but the little devil seemed pretty content with life and now being worked hard in training exhausted him enough to sleep like the dead, maybe he'd been going too easy on his ward during practice.

Three weeks after the start of Moddeus' training Nero returned home late into the night from a demon killing job, pretty standard stuff but the little critters only came out in the pitch black night so he knew he wouldn't be getting home early.

So why Dante had tried waiting up for him after getting home exhausted as usual was beyond Nero, at least that's what the hunter assumed had been the case finding the younger fallen asleep on the couch with the tv buzzing in the background and a half eaten sandwich fallen on the floor.

Sighing Nero couldn't help but smile as he hung up his coat and locked the doors then walked over to brush his hand through white strands of hair. "You should have gone to bed idiot." He flicked the tv off and left the sandwich in its place but ran his hand down from Dante's hair to brush his thumb over Dante's cheek and then stroll his fingers down the teen's neck and shoulder smoothly.

That's when his eyes caught sight of something under the hem of Dante's black shirt along his shoulder, a knot grew in his stomach. He knew what that looked like but to hell or heaven Nero was hoping he was wrong.

Pulling the shirt back Nero swallowed around his suddenly dry throat as his devil hand clenched tight as he eyed the very obvious bite mark. A, mostly, human bite mark with some slightly sharper and bigger canines, so a demon who had a humanoid form. Now who did he know like that who had been spending a lot of time with Dante?

Nero was going to kill that demon bastard.

 

/

Their swords clashed over and over, Dante had soaked up Moddeus' fighting style and mastered it in their time together and mixed it up with Nero's to create his own style. He was proud to be keeping up with this ancient demon, one trained by his great ancestor of all people, who had promised he wasn't holding back at this point.

When he fought something else took hold of him, probably whatever demonic blood ran through his veins and Dante felt like he was on autopilot. His eyes scanned every movement and opening Moddeus made and his body moved accordingly, catching himself and learning from his mistakes that he still made, much to his chagrin.

As many times as he had bested Moddeus the demon could still catch him off guard almost just as much, he still needed practice and work so he demanded new round after round until his body hurt so badly he could barely stand up any longer.

Tonight was no different than any other, except for how Moddeus was acting. He'd been uncharacteristically quiet, they didn't really have huge conversations but they would strike a chord together sometimes and talk about Sparda, or combat, stupid things even like sweets that they both enjoyed.

He was friendly and smiled, his demonic aura didn't feel threatening. Tonight was different, the air felt stiff between them and dark eyes kept watching him in long goes that kept Dante on his toes and uneasy. For the first time in the demon's presence he felt like prey being played with by its hunter.

Stopping during their halfway point so that he could walk over and grab a bottle of water to guzzle Dante, against his better judgment, turned his back to Moddeus. "So what's up with you tonight, you're acting weird?"

That was exactly when he felt a pair of sharp teeth sink into his shoulder spilling blood everywhere and _then_ he felt the actual presence behind him as he cried out in pain and tore himself away from the demon. "What the _fuck_!?"

Holding his shoulder Dante glared with daggers at Moddeus who had bloodlust in his eyes, something that didn't look natural and put him off still. "Moddeus, hey...what happened to you?" the demon didn't say anything and took a stalking step closer, so Dante stepped backward.

"This isn't you, I know it isn't. Maybe we aren't friends but you don't seem like the demon who would spend weeks helping me only to give into an urge to slaughter me..." he tried to reason, feeling slightly in panic realizing that his shoulder wasn't even starting to heal. One thing he had grown to love about his powers was the quick healing that had spurred up in the last year of training but right now it was like when he was younger, the bite mark wouldn't stop bleeding or even clot up.

"Moddeus don't make me hurt you!" he shouted but instantly afterward lunged for his sword as the demon sprang forward to clash. Both of their weapons went clanging to the side, Dante's eyes followed and he gasped, "Shit!"

Large hands grappled him to the ground and gripped around his neck cutting off some airflow and Moddeus licked his bloody lips. "Sparda..." there was a crazed look in his eyes as he prepared to take a new bite, this time planning to take a whole chunk from Dante's shoulder.

Scrambling with little breath left the teen grabbed Moddeus' own sword with his fingertips, pulling it forward several times before he got his whole hand around it and thrust it up into the demon's stomach and ripped it up through his chest. Blood spraying everywhere, staining Dante from top to bottom as the demon gurgled and spit blood to the side his eyes began to fill with tears.

"I....'mSorry Dante..." With the last of his strength Moddeus pushed himself to collapse to the side, sword through his chest with a gaping bleeding hole stretched through him as he went still.

Sitting up Dante's whole body shook, what the hell had just happened? Maybe they weren't close, they hadn't known each other long but...but they'd been friends, hadn't they? Moddeus had been kind and understanding and today he had been the complete opposite.

Was that just how demons were, human-like and kind one day and giving into their darker nature at the drop of a hat and untrustworthy? Or had there been foul play here?

Dante couldn't think as he looked at his bloody clothes and hands, shaking like a leaf, "I didn't want to...I'm sorry, I'm really sorry I just...I was protecting myself..." he apologized to the corpse. Pushing himself up and picking up his own sword Dante walked home in a daze, if anyone saw him coated in layers of blood nothing registered to him until he got home and in the shower when the shaking started again.

"What the fuck just happened?" he mumbled over and over to himself.

/

A hand shook him awake and Dante sat up with a loud gasp and shoved the touch off of him with wide eyes, body stiff and ready to fight. That is until he saw Nero standing in front of him, a look in his eyes that Dante didn't like.

"I can explain." he said softly and touched a hand over the now healing wound on his shoulder. "You saw it...right?" his blue eyes flickered up and down from trying to meet Nero's eyes to looking down at the ground.

"I mean, I don't really know what happened actually just, it scared me."

"It scared you?" that caught Nero off guard and he slid onto the couch to sit close, "Did he force himself on you Dante? Tell me the truth, I won't be mad at you I promise."

"Huh? No! No no, not...not like that." the teen shook his head. "He attacked me, bit me out of nowhere and went completely psychotic trying to kill me in the middle of training! Mr. Moddeus wasn't acting like himself today but I didn't think it was going to turn out like this, with me..." his voice trailed off.

"You killed him?"

Dante nodded, "I had to, or he would have killed me. And I should feel bad because I did but I don't really!" he declared and started looking his hands over again like he had earlier, they were scrubbed free of blood now but he could still feel the sin sticking to his palms. "I _should_ feel bad for killing someone I knew!"

"Shh, shh Dante calm down or you're going to have a full blown panic attack." a large hand touched his cheek and stroked it gently in a calming manner. "It's the demon nature in us, makes killing easier I think. And he was trying to kill you, all you did was defend yourself Dante. _Dante look at me_."

When their eyes met Nero continued, "If you don't feel guilty it's fine, you did nothing wrong." That actually did make him feel better, Nero always called him out on his shit so if he wasn't making a deal out of this then it really couldn't be all that bad, right?

Dante nodded quickly and swallowed hard with a gulp, "Part of me was horrified by everything that happened, but I think part of me enjoyed every moment of it."

When Nero gestured with open arms Dante eagerly crawled into his lap and hugged him tight, clenching his hands into the man's shirt and burying his face taking in the comforting smell of their laundry detergent. "What if one day I just snap as he did and attack someone, what if I attack you like that?"

"You won't." came Nero's gentle tone as his devil hand rubbed soothing motions along his back, "You won't Dante."


End file.
